With 31 county precincts eligible to vote at each of Putnam County’s eight vote center locations, the Tuesday, May 8 primary election may sound like a logistical nightmare to some.
Fortunately, Putnam County Clerk Heather Gilbert and her Election Board have been preparing for the day for a year and a half now, so they’re feeling ready.
A move made in the name of cost savings and convenience, the move to vote centers comes with some new questions and potential problems.
One of the biggest questions posed by voters is, “How do I know I will get the right ballot?”
The first part of the answer is that a voter from any part of the county can vote at any machine in the county.
“All of the machines are programmed with every option available,” Gilbert said.
County Vote Centers
The polls will be open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8 for the 2018 primary election.
All registered voters in Putnam County are eligible to to vote at any of the eight designated vote centers in the county:
• Putnam County Courthouse, 1 Courthouse Square, Greencastle
• Reelsville Fire Department, 7748 S. CR 625 West, Reelsville
• Floyd Township Fire Department, 6901 E. CR 380 North, Fillmore
• Greencastle American Legion, 1401 Indianapolis Rd., Greencastle
• Cloverdale American Legion, 501 S. Main St., Cloverdale
• Bainbridge Community Building, 201 N. Grant Ave., Bainbridge
• Putnam County Fairgrounds Community Building, 191 N. U.S. 231, Greencastle
• Wellspring Christian Church, 3256 S. CR 725 East, Coatesville
An Indiana driver’s license, Indiana state ID, federal ID or passport is required to be able to vote.
Early voting has also been open on the second floor of the courthouse since Tuesday. This will continue during regular courthouse hours through Monday, May 7.
Should a Cloverdale resident find himself in Bainbridge on election day, that will be no problem. He’ll still be able to call for his ballot and vote in the Cloverdale Town Council races, District 4 County Council and Cloverdale Township trustee and advisory board.
When a voter approaches the election clerk, he or she will first scan the voter’s license or other ID form, which will first notify the clerk if the person is eligible to vote.
If so, a small receipt will print out for the election judge with the voter’s precinct and, in the case of the primary, party of choice.
The judge simply has to punch in the proper precinct and party, and the voter is ready to go.
In this way, all eight vote centers will be like early voting at the courthouse has been for previous election cycles.
“Now it’s like that everywhere,” Gilbert said.
The next question gets a little trickier, though, as voters ponder how the system tracks who has voted and what keeps a person from casting ballots at multiple locations.
On this matter, Gilbert is specific, as it brings up questions of election tampering in voters’ minds.
“The voting machines are not hooked up with the internet in any way,” Gilbert said. “Nobody can tamper with their vote.
“The poll book will be hooked up to a hotspot,” Gilbert added. “Nothing on it can be altered, nothing can be changed, except for the fact that they have voted will flip over.”
Voter Registration Clerk Stacia Hathaway added another important point.
“The poll book updates every two to three seconds, so there is no way to vote more than once,” she said.
The biggest issue now is that of training and getting poll workers used to the new technology.
“We’re having Very specific training this time,” Gilbert said. “We’re doing training for clerks, training for judges, training for inspectors.”
And should a person attempt to subvert the system and vote a second time, the poll book tablet will notify the clerk. The person’s voter information will be highlighted in green and denote that he or she has already voted.
Additionally, when election day rolls around, Gilbert is making sure that someone from her staff is at each site for the first four hours helping shepherd the poll workers through the adjustment.
Through a week of early voting, poll workers Judy Miller and Juanita Austin have reported no issues.
“It’s quick, it’s easy, we’ve had no problems with it,” Gilbert said.
One other new aspect to the system will be Hathaway’s ability to monitor the poll books from her office computer on election day. From that console, she will be able to see if the poll books are in use and properly charged.
“It will make election day easier because we can troubleshoot from the courthouse,” Gilbert said.
One question that remains up in the air is how tabulation will look on election night. While local election buffs have long watched the precinct-by-precinct totals written on the second-floor board at the courthouse, that will change when all the precincts are spread over multiple polling places.
“When the first polling location comes in, they’re going to have pieces of all 31 precincts,” Gilbert said. “We’re not going to have a clear picture.”
The League of Women Voters volunteers who write the results on the big board are going to their best to keep pace, but no one really knows how that’s going to work come election night.
Regardless, Putnam County isn’t ready to do away with its dry erase board just yet.
“We’re one of only six counties that still has a board, but people love that and don’t want to see it go,” Gilbert said.
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