Voting center plan to be finalized

Schnellville is off the list as a location for a voting center; Birdseye and Celestine have been added in the final version of the plan the county will submit to the state.

The changes were approved during a voting center commission meeting held Tuesday evening at the County Annex.

If all goes as planned, voters in the May primary will have a choice of eight locations across the county to vote. Celestine is the most recent addition to a list that includes voting centers in Dubois, Birdseye (moved from Schnellville), Ferdinand, Huntingburg, Holland, and two voting centers in Jasper.

The vote centers are a recent change in the district-based polling centers. Rather than voters having to report to a specific polling center to vote; they can vote at any of the eight voting centers.

According to County Clerk Bridgette Bartley, the plan will be finalized and a public hearing will be scheduled as soon as possible. The rush is on because the county has to submit the plan 90 60 days before the May 6 primary. Before it can be submitted to the state, the county has to allow 30 days for the public to comment or ask questions.

Bartley also stated that after hearing comments from the public at the forum held in Ferdinand last week, the election board felt the majority of the voters in the southeastern portion of the county were in support of the voting center being located in Birdseye.

The county can reexamine the locations and number of voting centers after the election cycle this year to determine if changes to the plan need to be made, according to Bartley.

Besides adding new electronic poll books that will scan State-issued IDs or driver’s licenses, the county is also exploring a mobile application to allow voters to know the wait time at each vote center.