The Monroe County Election Board on Aug. (at its August meeting) approved retaining Barnes & Thornburg to assist the county legal department in a federal lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 10, which prohibits use of student IDs for voter identification.

The hire was described by Dave Schilling, an attorney in the county legal department, as limited in scope. "the, representation of Barnes and Thornburg is gonna be limited to assisting us in, court conferences and hearings and, discovery complying with discovery requests and so forth, and will not be with taking a position on the validity of senate bill 10 through this," Schilling said. He told the board the county asked the state attorney general to represent the county but the attorney general's office declined; the county will pay Barnes & Thornburg from the legal department budget.

The move comes as the county implements recent state legislation affecting voter identification and citizenship verification. Monroe County Clerk Nicole Brown said the new laws have caused "fear and ... confusion" among some voters and urged anyone who receives a letter from the clerk's office to come forward for help. "If there is anything that we can do, we don't wanna contribute to this fear," Brown said.

Elections staffer Kylie provided details about the county's outreach under the new citizenship rule. "As of July 31, we sent out 26 letters requesting those voters for proof of citizenship. And as of today, 31 letters in total have gone out," Kylie said. Kylie told the board three voters have come in to provide proof of citizenship and one letter was returned as undeliverable; letters that return undeliverable remain in a 30-day processing hold. The clerk's office has a separate citizenship maintenance hopper for voters who were registered before the law and had been issued a temporary credential.

Board members debated and then approved the retainer. A board member volunteered to sign the retainer on behalf of the board; the motion carried on an aye vote. Schilling asked the board to designate one member to sign the retainer agreement; the board complied.

Nut graf: The county's action ties local election administration to a broader state-level legal dispute over voter ID rules and how officials identify and verify voters who have temporary credentials. The retainer authorizes outside counsel to assist with litigation tasks and discovery while the county continues implementing new voter-registration and ID verification procedures.

Background and details: Schilling identified the lawsuit as Unite or Count Us In et al. v. Diego Morales et al., filed in federal district court and challenging Senate Bill 10. He said the outside counsel's role will be narrow and limited to litigation support; he also said the county attempted to secure representation from the Indiana attorney general's office but was refused. The retainer agreement was described as payable from the county legal department budget.

What happens next: The county will proceed with the litigation support arrangement; staff continue outreach and intake for citizenship-verification letters and are tracking responses. The board's formal designation of a signer and the retainer execution were the meeting's explicit actions on the litigation.

Ending: The county emphasized that voters who receive letters need not panic and that staff will assist with documentation and questions. The board did not take any additional policy votes on the underlying statutes during the meeting.