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 required to finalize a resolution. The election office will collect written comments for 30 days and include public feedback in a plan submitted to the Indiana Election Division if the local bodies approve moving forward.

Operational details in the draft plan: Williams said the county would put at least 10 voting machines and four electronic poll books (poll pads) at each vote center, and that the county’s encoders and microVote system used for early voting would perform ballot assignment at the centers. Because each vote center would be preprogrammed with all county ballot styles, Williams said a spare machine could be deployed faster to a busy site than under the current precinct-based system, which requires reprogramming per individual precinct.

The draft anticipates changing the number of poll workers needed on Election Day. Williams said past elections required roughly 500–700 poll workers; under the proposed 52 vote centers the office estimates 400–500 poll workers would be needed. Williams said the reduction would allow staff to focus training efforts and that the plan includes the option of training one clerk at each center to handle paperwork exclusively.

Public reaction and questions: About two dozen speakers, including precinct workers, party officials and civic groups, addressed the board. Supporters — including Roberta Larson Collazo, a longtime poll worker, Jane Funke, and Steve Brannick, who has worked early-vote centers — said vote centers reduce the number of voters turned away after arriving at the wrong precinct and can increase throughput. “With countywide openings, my god, there’s no excuse for that,” Brannick said, describing high early-vote throughput at a Cool Creek site with 10 machines.

Other commenters raised concerns about concentrating turnout at fewer sites, possible long lines at popular centers and the risk of operational errors if a future administrator could reassign machines unilaterally. Josh Lowry, chair of the Hamilton County Democrats, asked that any authority to change machine allocations on short notice be exercised jointly by the election board rather than by a single staff member. Williams said the text of the draft would be revised to clarify that any on-the-day changes would be made cooperatively by the board and staff on duty.

Vendors and civic groups: Steve Schammel, a MicroVote representative, said recent upgrades (larger memory cards for machine encoders) make vote centers technically feasible now and that other counties’ experience shows operational efficiencies and better provisional ballot processing when sites are consolidated. Lisa [last name not specified], president of the Hamilton County chapter of the League of Women Voters and an employee at the Carmel Clay Public Library early vote center, said literature and signage (for example, Vote411.org) will be important for voter education if Hamilton County adopts centers.

Numbers and resources cited in the hearing: Williams said the county has about 506 voting machines in the field during a typical election; with 52 centers and a minimum of 10 machines per center, the draft contemplates about 520 machines in use countywide and would rely on existing early-vote machines and spares to meet demand. Williams told the meeting that, after provisioning vote-center machines, approximately 80–83 machines and 36 poll pads would remain as spares and mobile units to transfer where needed on Election Day.

Next steps: The board opened a 30-day comment window; Williams will collect written comments by email, include them in the public record and post frequently asked questions on the elections website. The board scheduled a follow-up meeting to review comments for Sept. 18 at 1 p.m. if all parties confirm their availability. No formal adoption vote on the vote-center plan took place at the Aug. 13 meeting.

Votes taken at the meeting: The board approved the meeting minutes from Jan. 23 and voted to take no further action on the Wolf campaign finance reports listed from the January meeting; both were recorded as “motion carried.” The board did not take an adoption vote on the vote-center plan.