Marion County Election Board Meeting: Public Test and Vote Center Plan Amendment - October 4, 2024
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Marion County Election Board Meeting: Public Test and Vote Center Plan Amendment - October 4, 2024
The Marion County Election Board met on October 4, 2024, at 9:03 AM local time (15:15 UTC) to conduct the mandatory public test of election day voting equipment, adopt an amendment to the 2024 general election vote center plan, and discuss voter registration updates and early voting logistics. The meeting was led by Chair Olita Stewart, with Secretary Kate Sweeney Bell, Vice Chair Will Schreuer, and other officials present.
Public Comments & Testimony
- A member of the public requested the total number of registered voters in Marion County. Director Patrick Becker provided the figure: 644,359 registered voters as of October 1, 2024.
- The same speaker asked about the increase from the primary, which was approximately 642,000.
- Additional discussion ensued about voter list maintenance, inactive and canceled voters, the 90-day federal freeze on removing deceased voters before elections, and the process for voters to check and update their registration via IndianaVoters.in.gov.
- Another attendee raised a concern about receiving a voter registration postcard despite regularly voting; officials explained the voter list maintenance process and offered to help investigate individual cases after the meeting.
Discussion Items
- Public Test of Voting Equipment: Director Becker explained the legal requirement to test at least 5% of voting machines publicly. Approximately 2,500 ballot marking devices (ExpressVotes), 220 DS200 tabulators, and 4 DS850s have been tested. A zero report was presented showing zero votes in the software before testing. The test involves pre-marked ballots with a predetermined outcome to verify accurate tabulation. The test was expected to take 2.5 to 3 hours due to the lengthy ballot.
- Amendment to 2024 Vote Center Plan: Director Becker reported that the Indy Honda dealership (South 31) had become unavailable due to construction. A replacement location, The Game Preserve (1551 East Stop 12 Road, Greenwood), directly across the street, has agreed to serve as a vote center. Signage will direct voters from the former location. The plan now includes 186 vote centers. The amendment also updated voter registration numbers on page three as of October 1, 2024. The plan is now revision 15.
- IEC-10 Certification Document: Director Becker presented the IEC-10 form, which certifies the optical scan voting system test. The board will complete and sign it after the test concludes successfully, and it must be filed with the state within seven days, along with the amended vote center plan.
- Voter Registration and Early Voting Updates: The Board discussed the voter registration deadline on Monday, October 7, at 4:30 PM. Early in-person voting at the City-County Building begins October 8 and will be open daily, including weekends. Traveling boards (for confined voters) start October 17. The deadline for absentee by-mail applications is October 24. Additional early voting satellite sites open October 26. Election day is November 5. Voters must bring a valid ID.
Key Outcomes
- Approval of Amended Vote Center Plan: The board unanimously approved the amendment to replace the Indy Honda location with The Game Preserve. The motion was moved and seconded, with Vice Chair approving, Clerk recording, and Chair voting aye.
- Certification Pending: The IEC-10 certification will be completed and filed after the public test passes. No formal vote was taken at the meeting; the board will act upon test completion.
- Public Test Ongoing: The test was in progress; the meeting remained in session to conclude and finalize the IEC-10.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good morning everyone. We'll call the uh Marion County election board meeting to order here uh October 4th. Uh it is 9 03 a.m. Um before we kick off, I will have everyone do introductions here for everyone in the room and everyone watching. Um I'll start with myself and Olita Stewart Chair. Kate Sweeney Bell, Secretary Will Schreuer, Oxy pretend for things Adam Wicker or corporation council. Okay, sorry, staff before uh Patrick Becker, Director of Elections. Brad Boswell, outside council. All right. Well that thank you everyone for our introductions. Um big big thing today. We want to go ahead and get kicked off before we get into the agenda. Uh is today is the public tests uh for election day voting equipment. Um Director Beckers, everybody in place, but we want to kick off the you want to speak to the public testing and what it is before we have the team sort of kick off. Sure, thank you, madam chair. Um so um as we do every election as required by law, um the state uh provides us a list of um a minimum of five percent of our machines that need to be tested in front of the public at a public meeting. Um and these are the machines that are in front of us now. Um all of the machines through our entire fleet have been tested over the last few weeks. So we have about 2500 uh ballot marking devices or express votes, and we're deploying about 220 um DS200s, which are the um ballot tabulators, and then we have four DS850s that have all been uh tested up to this point. Um, and so uh this test for the public uh will be an opportunity for them to see um what the test looks like that we've been doing essentially over the last uh month or so. Um what I hold in my hand and I'll provide to the board um is a summary report that comes out of um our election software tabulation system, um, and it shows that there are zero votes um in the software current currently. Um what staff has done in is part of the process of testing is uh they create test ballots and they um will actually pre you know pre-mark ballots um and use a predetermined uh um a formula to sort of predetermine an outcome uh that we're anticipating. Um and so what we do is we have a predicted outcome, we run all of our test ballots, and then we load all those results into our software, and we make sure that the software tabulates correctly and matches the predicted outcome uh that we've we've uh put in there. Um so again, this is the what we call the zero report at the end of the public test. Once we've loaded uh that test data into the software, you will get a report that has test data in it and will show uh results uh for those different uh races. Um that's how we'll we will um conclude the test. Happy to answer any other questions. And just so everybody knows this is gonna this is gonna be a long one. There are a lot of things on the ballot. And uh we don't just check uh the top, we check it all. So this will take a little longer than uh say it does um traditionally. We're expecting about two and a half to three hours for for the five percent. Okay, any other questions from the board before we have the team kick off. I've got none, no, no. Okay, perfect. So I think we can have these guys go ahead and get started. It's gonna be a little a little loud, but they're gonna start coming in, so I won't get them in. All right, it's a it's uh it's impressive when the whole team files in. I just want to watch the uh progression of the team. Well, it's they know exactly what they're doing. They were just waiting for for your go ahead, and Alita. Make it so. I kind of need a gavel to make it happen. It'll squeak. Yeah, not one of those. All right, a chew toy. Well, I guess they'll be in presently, but that's okay. We can give it a minute so it's not uh disruptive after they come into the room and then we can kick off and take a look at the zeros. Okay, they're all that's a lot. That's a lot of uh I've read some of the things in the other states where they've got you know, like somebody left off the ballot or a typo or uh they forgot the democratic candidates on the ballot.
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