Marion County Election Board Meeting - Provisional Ballot Review - May 17, 2024
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Marion County Election Board Meeting - Provisional Ballot Review - May 17, 2024
The Marion County Election Board convened at 10:00 a.m. on May 17, 2024, to review 217 provisional ballots from the 2024 primary election. The meeting, chaired by the Board Chair, included Director of Elections Patrick Becker, Vice Chair, Secretary, and legal counsel. The board voted on batches of ballots based on recommendations from election staff and Voter Registration, with a focus on absentee signature issues, missing ID, and various challenges. A total of 93 ballots were initially approved for counting, with some conditional on ID presentation by noon. The board also corrected a ballot count error and discussed poll worker training issues.
Discussion Items
- Absentee Mail Signature Issues (Ballots 1-83): Director Becker explained that ballots 1-66 had missing or mismatched signatures but voters submitted curing documents (ABS 18A/B) by the Wednesday noon deadline. Staff recommended counting these, and the board voted unanimously to count them. Ballots 67-83 did not receive curing documents; staff recommended not counting, and the board voted to reject them. The board noted that 66 of 83 affected voters successfully cured their ballots.
- Voters Without ID (Ballots 84-95): Ballot 84 had the voter present ID and was counted. For ballots 85-95, the board voted to count them conditionally if the voter presented photo ID by noon on May 17. The board also discussed outreach efforts to notify voters.
- Other Challenges (Ballots 96-121): These ballots involved various challenge reasons (e.g., poll book issues, address changes). Staff recommended counting, and the board voted to count all 26 ballots.
- Remaining Ballots (122-217): Director Becker highlighted several categories: poll worker errors (e.g., address change forms incorrectly placed in provisional envelopes, poll workers checking in early), voters who attempted to change party selection after checking in, and duplicate voting (e.g., ballot 205 where a voter both voted by mail and in person). A total of 96 ballots were recommended for rejection. The board discussed the small number of errors relative to 85,000 total votes, with a few specific examples noted. The board voted not to count ballots 122-217.
- Correction on Ballot 103: After tabulation began, staff discovered that ballot 103, previously voted to count, was actually a surrendered absentee ballot (the voter voted in person). The board voted unanimously not to count it.
Key Outcomes
- Counted Ballots: 93 ballots (1-66, 84, 96-121) were approved for counting, with 85-95 conditional on ID by noon. One ballot (103) was later removed from the count.
- Rejected Ballots: 124 ballots (67-83, 85-95 if no ID, 122-217) were not counted, with the final number depending on ID presentation.
- Tabulation Process: Staff began opening and tabulating approved ballots, with the tabulation machine left open under supervision until noon. Results will be uploaded to the election reporting system and certified to the state election division.
- Turnout Statistics: The board noted that approximately 13% of the population voted in the primary, and highlighted the thoroughness of the provisional ballot review process.
- Poll Worker Training: Director Becker acknowledged that some rejected ballots were due to poll worker errors, such as mishandling address change forms or checking in early, and committed to addressing these issues in training.
- Meeting Adjournment: The board recessed until noon to allow for ID presentation, then reconvened briefly to address ballot 103 and adjourned.
Meeting Transcript
All right, um award this meeting of the Marion County Election Board uh today, May 17, 2024 at 10 a.m. Uh welcome everybody, and uh with that I'll pass it over with uh we'll start with introductions from uh my left uh to right uh Ethan Millson Office of Corporation Council, Patrick Becker, Director of Elections, Kate Sweeney Bell, Mary and County Clerk. Pete Lusper Proxy Election Board Gender Being, Vice Chair, Brad Boswell outside council. Thanks for the introductions, and uh uh with that I'll pass it over to Director Becker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um so today before the board is our 2024 primary uh provisional ballot review. Um these are provisional ballots that came to us through uh absentee by mail, early voting, um, and then on election day um the primary election. In total, there are 21. Um I'd like to go through as we typically do um kind of um categorical um grouping them together. Um you'll also know that we don't have any voter names on the provisional sheet in front of you because um for confidentiality sake we refer to them as a number um ballot number, provisional ballot number um for this purpose of this meeting. I do want to call to the board's attention. There is on um provisional ballot number 106 um in the um election board research note column there is a voter name there. So I just want to we will um modify this and for you know um after the meeting to make sure that what's you know available for public is is not uh does not have any voters name in there. Um but if you can just mark that out there, it's referring to a voter's old name of a previous election or previous registration. Um and from there, um like I said, these are provisional ballots that kind of uh have different categories. The first category I'd like to discuss with the board and um is our um absentee mail ballots that have either missing or mismatched signatures from the voter, um numbers ballot numbers one through 66 are um ballots where a vote by mail ballot was returned, and either the signature was missing from the ballot envelope, the security envelope, or when the bipartisan um team did their signature review, it was deemed that they mismatched. Um at that point, um there's a recent law change where that moves that into a provisional ballot. The voter is then sent an ABS 18A if it's unsigned or an ABS 18B if it was mismatched, um, and that is a curing document that they are able to complete with a new signature provide back to us. They had until noon on Wednesday to get those documents back to us. Um those documents that did get received for one through 66. We did have our colleagues in voter registration review those ABS 18A and B documents for signature comparison. Um so at this time both election board staff and VR staff recommend one through 66 be counted as they return their um curing document and those have been reviewed by bipartisan teams. Uh is there a motion to to count uh to count these votes and to uh to accept these votes uh is uh I I will move is there do you want to know if anybody has comments? I'm sorry, is there any comment before we take I have no questions or comments? Thank you, staff. Neither do I, so I will move to count ballots uh provisional ballots numbered one through 66 uh at the recommendation of both the uh election board staff and the board of voters registration as a motion and a second and uh as traditionally we go through and we have to individual is it individual votes? Yes, okay, let's stop proper. Um as vice chair vote I as uh secretary I vote aye. Um as chair I'll vote aye. Okay. I have it. All right, next. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So then that takes us to number um number 67 through 83 are the next um batch. These are absentee mail ballots that again either the signature was missing or mismatched, and we did not receive the hearing document, the ABS 18A or B by noon on Wednesday. And so again, in agreement with VR, the staff recommendation is that ballot numbers 67 through 83 do not count. Okay. Is there a comment from anyone? I have a question. These ballots Steph did try to reach out to the with whatever information we had to contact these voters to let them know what was going on and to come in to fix it. Yes, that's that's correct. So we send by law we're required to mail the ABSE team where we um to the voter. Um we also typically will if we have an email address, try and email that form to them or also call them to notify that this is you've entered into this process now, and this is what you need to do to cure um cure your signature. And this is these are the mail ballots. So most of the people where there was an issue, we we we did the 66. So 66 out of 83 um were able to get their their curing document back to us in time for us to review it. Okay. So these these balls would be disqualified, not counted.
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