Warrick County election board approves minutes, advances updated vote-center plan for county review

The Warrick County Election Board met starting at 11:02 a.m. to review an updated vote-center plan, approve minutes from its Jan. 15 meeting and set dates for training and a public machine test.

The board unanimously approved the Jan. 15 minutes after a motion on the floor; “All in favor, say aye,” one board member said, and members responded “Aye.” Members then reviewed an edited vote-center plan produced by staff member Lynette and agreed to a short follow-up meeting on March 2 to finalize edits before submitting the plan to the county council and county commissioners.

Why it matters: the plan sets how and where early voting and election-day voting will be conducted for the county’s roughly 48,000 active voters and therefore affects voter convenience and resource needs. Board members noted inconsistent voter totals inside the draft (different pages list different figures) and asked staff to reconcile the numbers before the plan is finalized.

On locations and access: the revised plan lists 17 vote centers, including the Boonville City Building (referred to in the draft as “North Pole”), Lynnville Community Center and the Ohio Township Trustee Office. The plan states that any eligible voter may cast a ballot at any of the three early-voting locations. Board members asked staff to validate ADA compliance at the named locations; staff confirmed that the North Pole site is certified as ADA compliant for voting access, though a public commenter noted that the site’s restroom layout is not fully accessible and asked the board to be aware of that limitation.

Training and testing: the board scheduled a public voting-machine test and related meeting for April 1 (machine testing around 11 a.m., followed by early-voting worker training about 1 p.m.). Members discussed training logistics, asking staff to provide at least two training times to accommodate workers’ schedules; tentative additional training dates mentioned for poll-worker sessions included March 26 and March 30.

Operational issues: members confirmed use of Infinity voting machines and e-poll books and discussed minimum staffing (the draft calls for no fewer than five election workers per vote center). The board debated whether to permit split shifts (half-day shifts with pro-rated pay) for poll workers; after concerns about payroll complexity and operational risk, members agreed not to implement split shifts now but left the option open if recruitment shortages arise.

State law uncertainty: a board member flagged a pending Indiana bill that could shorten the early-voting window (discussion referenced moving from 28 days to 16 days). The board treated the bill as a potential external change but said no plan edits were needed unless and until the bill becomes law.

Public comment: members of the public and attendees raised three operational concerns at the meeting: questions about ADA access at a designated site, a request that voters account for possible mail delays after local postal routing changes, and a question about how the presence of immigration-enforcement agents (ICE) at or near polling sites should be handled; board staff said they would touch on handling such scenarios in training and that they had not heard reports of enforcement at polling places.

Next steps: staff will reconcile voter-count figures in the draft, confirm details for attachments (including the origin of an accessibility certification noted in the packet), and produce machine-and-staffing counts for the March 2 follow-up meeting. After the March 2 review, the board intends to forward the plan to the county council and commissioners for their approval. The board adjourned after the public-comment period.