The Starke County Election Board was a bit slow getting to work Thursday, after members hit a stalemate over who would run the meeting. The first item of business was the board’s reorganization.
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A new Republican representative has been appointed to the Starke County Election Board.
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The Starke County Commissioners approved a motion Monday night to direct the Starke County Election Board to move forward with a move from precinct voting sites to Vote Centers.
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Plans to upgrade Starke County’s voting machines may be put on hold, pending the outcome of a bill in the Indiana Senate. Senate Bill 570 proposes a number of new requirements related to election cyber security. Notably, any electronic voting systems would have to have a “voter verifiable paper audit trail,”starting in 2022.
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Starke County Council Member Tom DeCola failed to appear before the county election board Friday. DeCola had apparently asked to be on the agenda, but by the end of the meeting, he still hadn’t arrived. “Let the minutes show that a second calling for Mr. Tom DeCola to come before the board after his request was sent to us, and he is not present,” said Board President Peg Brettin. “And the request was in writing.”
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Starke County expects to have a total of 20 first-time poll workers this Election Day. During last week’s election board meeting, board member Peg Brettin said voters will notice some younger people working the polls, “Because many of the older people either, one, don’t want to do it anymore, or two, are deceased,” she explained. “So that’s one of the reasons why you’re going to see a lot of new people out there.”
Steps are being taken to secure Starke County’s voting machines. Clerk Vicki Cooley told the rest of the election board Wednesday that plans are in the works to build a state-compliant secure storage room, within an existing storage area.
Four Starke County candidates are facing fines for failing to turn in their campaign finance reports on time. County council member Dave Pearman, county council candidate Howard Bailey, Coroner Dannie Hoffer, and former county council candidate Karl Swihart all missed Friday’s noon deadline, according to Clerk Vicki Cooley.
The Starke County Election Board members opened a public hearing Wednesday morning to hear testimony from candidates who filed Primary Election financial reports later than the deadline date of April 20, 2018. Of the eight candidates who were late with their reports, only three appealed their fines. The remaining candidates paid their non-compliant $50 daily fine in the clerk’s office without further objection.
The Starke County Election Board will soon be surveying poll workers about the quality and timing of the meals provided to them on Election Day. This comes after Starke County Democratic Party Chair Kenny Wallace raised concerns about poll worker meals during Wednesday’s election board meeting.
A poll worker’s needlepoint hobby led to a lengthy debate among Starke County Election Board members Wednesday. Board President Harrison Fields said he’s gotten complaints about a poll worker who’s apparently been doing needlepoint while waiting for potential voters, during in-person absentee voting hours. “I’ve had two phone calls on it, and me personally, I don’t like the looks of it, personally,” he said. “I don’t like the looks of it.”
The Starke County Election Board is ready to take its proposal for voting machine upgrades to the county council and commissioners. Vendor MicroVote wants to bring the county’s 46 machines up to the latest federal standards, in time for the 2020 presidential election. Board members decided Wednesday to discuss the upgrades with the county council and commissioners during their March 19 meetings.
The Oregon-Davis school referendum is moving ahead. The Starke County Election Board passed a resolution Wednesday allowing the question to be placed on the ballot, according to County Clerk Vicki Cooley. Continue reading
Whether the Starke County Election Board should have a fixed meeting schedule in 2018 was a topic of a heated debate during last week’s meeting.
The Starke County Election Board is cracking down on candidates who don’t turn in their financial statements on time. “They have to close out their candidacy by preparing the forms according to the deadlines,” Election Board President Peg Brettin explained during last week’s meeting. “If they don’t, the way the law is set up, the county election boards throughout the State of Indiana can have a hearing for them, can bring them before the board, can assess them.”
The Starke County Election Board discussed political sign disclaimers during their meeting Thursday afternoon.
A written complaint was filed by Tammie Taulbee, a Knox School Board candidate, that four candidates did not have disclaimers on their signs placed in public areas promoting their candidacy for the General Election.
It is law that a disclaimer be included on all political material stating who paid for the material and whether any candidate approves of the material if the material is paid for by someone other than the candidate.
