All right.

Good afternoon, everyone.

We'll call the Marion County election board to meeting uh election board meeting to order here on September 6th.

It is uh 2 02 p.m.

Uh before we get started, we'll do a round of introductions for everyone first.

Uh we'll start with the board um and then we'll have staff and council introduce themselves.

Um I'll start with myself, Nolita Stewart Chair.

Good afternoon, Jennifer Ping, Vice Chair, Kate Sweeney Bill, Secretary.

Patrick Becker, Director of Elections, Rabb Boswell, outside counsel, Adam Wicker, Corporation Council.

Great.

Good.

Thank you guys.

Um as we after the call of order, we have a few things on the agenda to cover today.

Uh the first being the ratification of the 2024 general election ballot.

Um, very exciting.

Uh Director Becker, you want to give us some background on the information you sent over to the board this week.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, so yeah, the board received um last week um a version of the proof, the ballot proof um for their review.

Um I also sent a revised version today to the board um before this meeting, the link to sort of the final uh proof that the board will be ratifying uh today.

Um there the process for ballot ratification.

Uh this is the fifth version of the ballot, the selection.

Uh this project is managed by Chad Klingerman on our staff who's our ballot administrator.

Um, and it starts with taking filings all the way back in January for the primary.

Uh those people that won the primary election.

Um obviously uh most of them stay on uh to be candidates in the fall.

We've added independence write-ins, school board candidates, um, other you know, party candidates, uh minor party candidates to this ballot.

Um it's been reviewed by full-time staff.

Uh it's been reviewed by a team of 10 proofers who have uh come in and do just this.

Uh it's been reviewed by ESNS, our vendor.

We've also sent this to the political party chairman, um uh chair persons, sorry, um, the board and the school corporations.

Um, and so uh trying to make sure that everybody has a all the stakeholders um have had a chance to review and provide feedback.

Um, and we did get good feedback from some of the school corporations.

Um, and um so this does represent the the final ballot um that we will be using for the fall.

Um, and again, this requires a lot of close work with ESNS, who is our election vendor, to ensure that the proper names are are in the proper um races, that they're spelled properly, proper punctuation.

Um, and then this step um will actually lead to us creating test ballots.

Uh we'll start um what we call burning the media, which is um getting the USB sticks loaded with this information, putting those into machines and starting our testing process next week.

So we're excited to get ready, get get moving.

Very exciting.

Uh any questions from the board.

Um uh Madam Chair, I don't have a question, but um a comment primarily for the public because I received a good number of questions the last week um from my party in in proofing the ballot.

Just want to make sure everybody understands um the order that candidates are on the ballot, and that that's not an arbitrary decision by by staff or even us as a board on how that um the order of which um candidates are on the ballot.

Um it is based upon the secretary of state candidates party who wins an individual county.

So in Marion County, uh the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State won the most votes or gathered the most votes from Marion County um over the other libertarian or even um Republican candidates.

So that's why they're in the order that they are on the ballot.

That is not alphabetical.

We've had a lot of questions about that, but I just want to make sure that um everybody um understands that in the public and really thank staff for their due diligence because not only is it not alphabetical, but you gotta make sure.

I mean, there's a lot of Patrick was very short in his in his comments, but um it's what 1700 pages long the ballot was we have to review roughly.

Um and so it's a lot of work, but again, some people had questions about how how the order was selected, and again, that's out of our control by following law.

But thank you, Patrick, and your staff for for your um diligence on that.

Indianapolis, your ballot is not 1700 pages long.

What we have to proof is, but your ballot is shorter, but additionally, uh and to your point, the order of the candidates on the ballot, the the party offices on the ballot.

Um that's determined by state statute.

questions about how how the order was selected and again that's out of our control by following law but thank you Patrick and your staff for for your um diligence on that Indianapolis your ballot is not seventeen hundred pages long what we have to proof is but your ballot is shorter but additionally uh and to your point the order of the candidates on the ballot the the party offices on the ballot um that's determined by state statute so if I if I think if we were choosing and the clerk's office were on the ballot that would be at the top every single time but uh yeah the order is dictated Indiana Code uh they they they did they didn't take they'll let you make that to that idea so you know we'll just go with what they said very good thank you that's all Madam Chair thank you vice chair it's a good comment to make for the public to be aware of because I'm sure other people may have had that question um any other comments all right it's a lot of work it's uh it's a heck of a lot of work and a lot of people put uh a lot of hours into making sure that the information is correct and uh we tip our hats to all of you who had a hand in that because uh we've been part of it and we know what it takes Chad is feeling quite pleased in this moment sorry all right with that if no if there are no other questions uh I'll ask for a motion to approve the nope sorry if I can't I I don't believe the board has to have to move the ballot apply um this if I can uh the the ballot is ratified as of today um so I don't believe the board required to approve it or ratify it um I do think it's important for this board to discuss the process and um but by law the ballot is ratified today and the board does have the the final ballot in in their possession.

Director Becker to that point and to um Madam Secretary's point um we have a lot of pages to review but could you briefly explain why that's the case because of the vote center county and what what that I mean why that this is um such an undertaking in Marion County?

Sure so the the ballot consists of you know federal state and local races and this fall we're also adding what was not on the ballot in the primary election is school board um so we have township advisory boards those have districts some um vote at large um school boards are broken up into districts so that creates different um styles that we call ballot styles so depending on where you live even though you can vote anywhere um where you live still determines who you vote for on your ballot um so the it is an undertaking for us especially because um we have to now have this ballot available um any version of the ballot to all voters at all locations and that's the the challenge of uh a logic and accuracy testing um but yeah when you add um more uh permutations to the ballot that adds more styles um and we want to make sure people have the right are voting for the right people um in the right districts right thank you Patrick I know that's wasn't on your agenda day to explain that but I think it's it's important that that folks understand the complexity that we have thank you but the complexity makes all of our lives easier we can go vote wherever anywhere want to that's right fantastic all right so if we don't we can move on on it's if it's by law is ratified so we know um well I approve it anyway I do as well because I took time to read it so I want to yes if the board wants to vote I'm I don't want to say they can't vote we don't want to say Chad thank you yes we approve thank you all right we'll move on to the 2024 general election vote center plan um which is also quite extensive given the number of vote centers director Becker you want to give background on what's included in the plan thank you madam chair um I will this plan and this board has seen uh very similar versions of this plan over the last few elections so I'd like to just kind of highlight some um make some highlights and and go through some changes that are in there um I think it's good for the public to know this will be the 14th version of the Marion County vote center plan uh the first one going back to April of 2019 um and so I think it's a good reminder we've been doing this for a little while now um and uh so that is one thing I wanted to note that is in the plan um the other thing that's in the plan is the uh number of registered voters in Marion County as of August 30th um the current total number of registered voters as of August 30th was 642,645 um the number of active voters in the county um 544 thousand three hundred and sixty seven and inactive voters 900 I'm sorry ninety-six thousand uh and fifty five um so again I think just good information for the public there's six hundred and forty two thousand uh folks and we're ready for all of you to come vote um especially the 96000 that are inactive can you explain what that what an active voter is versus inactive sure thank you so the inactive voters are voters that have not voted in um recent general elections um and so what happens in Indiana if you go through two um cycles of not voting in the general election um you will be moved into an inactive status and if you don't vote in this general election you will be moved into um going into a canceled status and so by voting in this election you are reactivating your status um

Sure, thank you.

So the inactive voters are voters that have not voted in recent general elections.

Um and so what happens in Indiana if you go through two um cycles of not voting in the general election, um, you will be moved into an inactive status.

And if you don't vote in this general election, you will be moved into um going into a canceled status.

And so by voting in this election, you are reactivating your status.