Hamilton County election board opens 30-day comment period on plan to replace precincts with vote centers

Hamilton County Election Board President Raymond Adler opened a public hearing Aug. 13 on the county’s proposal to replace precinct-only polling places with countywide vote centers, and the board announced a 30-day written comment period before any decision is forwarded to the county commissioners and council.

Election Administrator Kathy Williams outlined the plan, saying vote centers would let “Hamilton County residents vote at any location on Election Day,” use the same ballot-assignment system already used for early voting and bring all ballot styles to each site. Williams told attendees the county would deploy a minimum of 10 voting machines at each proposed site to speed lines and that having a smaller number of larger sites would make machine delivery and technical support faster.

The proposal is grounded in state guidance and a statutory formula Williams cited: Indiana law requires one vote center for each 10,000 active registered voters. Hamilton County has about 262,000 active registered voters, Williams said, which by that standard requires 26 locations; the draft plan proposes 52 vote centers “to give us an extra cushion.”

Why it matters: The board is only at the public comment stage. Williams told the room the election board must be unanimous to adopt the plan and that a majority vote of the county commissioners and the county council would also be…