We'll call the meeting of the Marion County Election Board to order.

My name is Ann O'Connor, and I am proxy for Nolita Stewart chair.

If we would like to introduce ourselves to table.

I'm Kate Sweeney Bell, Secretary of the Board and Mary County Clerk.

Jennifer Ping, Vice Chair.

Patrick Becker, Director of Elections.

Brad Boswell, outside council.

Adam Wicker Corporation County.

Thank you.

The next agenda item is adoption of the amended 2024 General Election Vote Center plan.

And I'll defer to Patrick Becker.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So this proposal, the amended plan in front of the board today.

The only real change to this plan from what we had previously approved is extending the hours in the morning from 11 to 6 to 9 a.m.

to 6.

There was over the the course of earlier part of this week there were some internal discussions bipartisan internal discussions about ways to expand early voting.

And we believe that this was the most logical approach because we already have the locations and the people, let's just extend the hours.

Any questions?

No questions, Madam Chair.

And I just want to clarify this would add to each of the existing locations.

Yes, so this plan includes basically extending the hours at all of the eight township sites other than the city county building, extending those hours two hours more in the morning, essentially.

So two additional hours in the morning.

And that would be for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.

Assuming uh, yes, so if we uh if the the board votes to approve this plan, we would file this with the state election division and it would become effective at that point, um, which would be a very quick turnaround, but would then allow for tomorrow to be um effective.

Thank you.

Uh I I do for clarity.

Can you explain uh Patrick Director Becker um how the satellite sites were first chosen just for clarity's sake?

Sure.

So the vote center plan uh itself is a it's a legal document.

There are legal requirements as to what needs to you know constitute the vote center plan.

Um part of a vote center plan includes satellite voting, um, which the state requirement is a minimum of seven hours, the two Saturdays before election day.

So the entire vote center plan has to be voted in on by this board unanimously.

So we work with both political parties to find excuse me, locations as well as the dates and the times that we believe will be you know sufficient.

Um and so working with both political parties, we we figure out what locations are available to us within those townships.

Um we work with those locations to you know enter into contract agreements to make sure that we have access to the space that we need and the the you know uh facilities and the infrastructure that we need, um, and then we work with them to try to accommodate as you know the long lines and things like that.

And so um it's a bipartisan effort, it's working with both political parties to come up with um uh an overall plan that works for everybody that is gonna have a unanimous uh agreement.

And staff talked with uh the sites they're able to accommodate or so.

We did get feedback from the site managers and and from leadership at the sites and and some of the and the workers there.

Um they were all um you know responded positively to the idea of expanding hours, um, and we did talk to not all but a um majority of the locations about expanding, and they were all you know, the ones we spoke to were open to that, um opening their doors earlier.

And so again, we felt like this was sort of a feasible um a feasible alternative to present to the board.

And there is money in the budget to do this.

Well, yes, there's um that complicates the the a complicated question with the new uh pay raise that came in, but um, understanding sort of the impact that that was going to have that um these additional hours would not have been too much of an impact for us to be able to to accommodate it.

of the locations about expanding and they were all you know the ones we spoke to were open to that um opening their doors earlier and so again we felt like this was sort of a a feasible um a feasible alternative to present to the board and there is money in the budget to do this well yes there's um that complicates the the a complicated question with the new uh pay raise that came in but um understanding sort of the impact that that was going to have that um these additional hours would not have been um too much of an impact for us to be able to to accommodate it and people at these eight satellite sites people start lining up at some of them at what time I mean as early as nine 9 30 um you know 10 o'clock so that was kind of the feedback from from site managers was if they're already in line let's just open the doors and get them in but you we can't put more machines in there we were very limited in how many more machines we can deploy because we've maximized the space at at most of these facilities um you know I was specifically talk about we have four township trustees offices um those are all I think at the the capacity as far as the number of check-in stations and the number of voting machines um we've we um you know a good example is St.

Luke's we moved to a larger room within that facility to accommodate more check-in machines more express votes um and and so you know we tried to work you know within the locations themselves but also right we want to make sure that it's something that works for everybody.

Thank you thank you.

Any more questions for Patrick hearing none um I'd entertain a motion concerning the adoption of the amended 2024 general election vote center plan I move to uh increase the hours for the vote center plan uh instead of 11 a.m to 9 a.m to hear a second if not I'll second the motion uh discussion uh yes actually we have um right now over 70 almost 79000 and this was it's possibly even over 80 000 now um in person early vote voters in marion county alone that's in addition to the 32,004 or 500 ballots that were mailed out and uh in 2020 at this point um we are already over the numbers for 2020 for in-person early voting uh and way over the numbers for in-person early voting in 2022 um this is an attempt to try to meet the demand of the voters of Marion County it is within our purview as a board to take this action and we have the jurisdiction to do so no one else can do this only this board can accomplish answering to these voters and uh we have already we we are at the bare minimum for our legal obligation to be open at one additional satellite site for seven hours the two Saturdays before that's what we're doing right now and I I believe that with this vote we will be able to do better and that will give voters uh look they're an interested bunch and uh they want their voice heard and I think this is uh we we can't go to Lucas Oil because they're busy this weekend so um that would that was a solution we were able to to find in 2020 it is not on the table this time this is something that we can do and uh it is something that a lot of people have agreed that they are able to do in addition to our site managers the sites and our poll workers and I think it is a common sense approach to this problem of people waiting and waiting and waiting to cast their ballot penguin yes madam chair I would like to um with all due due respect um I had a similar occurrence back in the 2004 um election when we were still sending out paper ballots directly to polling locations and we kept running out of ballots because there were so many voters we weren't able to prepare um for the um the understanding of uh we wouldn't understand how how important the election is going to be and how voters are going to come out so it was a very um very busy election day in 2004 um I believe this is also the case our cup runneth over we had some of the most beautiful days of weather the past Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday today not so much sorry kiddos for trick or trading and and hopefully the rain stops before you put your um custom made or handmade uh costumes on um but in in all fairness to um everybody who's actually on the ballot too um I I I think as much as possible um believe that it's important not to change the rules for people in the middle of of an election mid voting um I don't know about the rest of you here on on on this election board or when this is ever done but Sunday was a very busy day at one of the polling locations and kudos to staff um during

Um, but in all fairness to um everybody who's actually on the ballot too.

Um I I think as much as possible believe that it's important not to change the rules for people in the middle of an election mid-voting.

Um I don't know about the rest of you here on on this election board or when this is ever done, but Sunday was a very busy day at one of the polling locations, and um kudos to staff.

Um, Director Becker and and his staff have kept the board up to speed almost hourly on the on the the um the work at the voting centers and the lines and I said I could help, I could volunteer.

So I did.

I think I'm the one of the only election board members, minus a clerk, right?

That's because it's also the job of the clerk too, right?

That I I took my entire Sunday um and worked at one of the polling locations, and voters were um happy to vote.

Uh I didn't have nobody complained for standing in line.

My cup runneth over that you're coming out and and voting um this election.

Everybody says this is the most important election of your life, right?

This is now my seventh presidential election to um have an official capacity at, and and I believe that.

I believe that every election is important, and this one is as well.

Um, but um I will be voting no and changing that because I don't think it's proper to change this mid mid-uh voting.