Voting center move delayed till after primary election

Residents won’t be using voting centers during the May primary.

The Dubois County Election Board decided contingencies regarding equipment had made it difficult to complete the process to switch over by the May deadline.

With the switch to eight voting centers, the county would have to upgrade to electronic polling books. According to County Clerk Bridgette Jarboe, Tippecanoe County ran into issues with the e-poll books software during their first election using the new system. The software wouldn’t communicate with the Statewide Voter Registration System, forcing the election officials to have to email the polling results to the state. 

Now, the state requires that the counties ensure their software will work with the state system. “We don’t have enough time to certify a certain system will work before the primary,”  Jarboe said.

In addition, the election officials will have to train poll workers on how to use the new system.

This all would have to happen before the county could submit a plan to the state by March to meet the 60 day deadline.

The county election board and voting center committee are still pursuing the new plan but the process has been put on hold till after the primary election. Questions and inquiries about the process can be submitted to the Dubois County Clerk’s Office at 481-7035.