Election Day is just over a month away and there are several ways that a voter can cast a ballot in the May 7 primary election.
Pulaski County Clerk JoLynn Behny and Starke County Clerk Bernadette Manual explain what happens when a voter goes to the polls on Election Day.
Behny said, “The primary election is used to narrow down the ballot for the general election. You will have to choose a Republican or a Democratic ballot for the primary.”
Manuel added, “It is a Republican and Democratic primary. It’s not a general primary, it’s a party primary. That’s why everybody has to pick a party to vote for, as JoLynn said, to dwindle it down for the general election.”
Behny continued, “That’s why the party offices, specifically, are on the primary ballot like delegates and precinct committee people. School board candidates are not on the primary because it’s not a party-based office so it won’t be until the general election.”
Behny noted that voters play a big role in the primary election.
“We have local races that are extremely important to our community that people need to get out and vote for and be heard. Also, since the State has come up with and now enforced the Affiliation Law, if you ever decide you want to run for office, it’s extremely important to vote in the primary. You have to have voted in the past two primary elections on the party ticket for whatever you want to run. If you want to run as a Republican, you have to either have voted the last two primary elections as a Republican or become certified by the party chair,” stated Behny.
Manuel takes voters through the process of when you go to the polls on Election Day.
“You will go in and check in on the e-poll book,” explained Manuel. “They will scan your ID. If you do not want your ID scanned, they don’t have to do that. They can manually type in your first and last name, and bring you up that way. You will verify your date of birth, your address, and make sure everything is correct. In the primary you will have to choose your party on the poll book whether it’s a Democrat ticket that you would like or the Republican ticket that you would like. You will sign your name. They will encode the vote card. The only information on that vote card is what ballot style you get. You will go to the voting machine and they will put the vote card in the machine. It will pull up your ballot and the only information that goes to the voting machine is what ballot you should have and then you will vote. Once you press the red cast button and walk away the judge will make sure the lights on cast button will no longer lit up which means you did cast your ballot.”
If the voter leaves without pushing the red cast ballot button, a bi-partisan team will push the button together to cast that person’s vote.
The process is the same in Pulaski County.
Sample ballots are available at the Starke County Courthouse and at the Pulaski County Clerk’s temporary location at 117 E. Main Street in Winamac. Behny stated that the Pulaski County Library has election literature available for everyone to review.
For more questions regarding the election, call 574-772-9160 in Starke County and 574-946-3313 in Pulaski County.
