There was a meeting held to go over the proposed voting center plan for Decatur County on Tuesday.
Jennifer Sturges presented the plan at the meeting. They were able to do early voting with 1 central location on machines which ran very smoothly. They would use the same Microvote equipment that they have used for previous elections, which have proved to work effectively at the early voting center. The main difference between the way we are currently voting and the new plan for voting centers is that with the centers people will be able to vote outside of their precinct. The voting equipment will still track which precinct you are from, however it will not matter if you are within it at the time of voting. This would make it easier for people who have to work on voting day and aren’t close to home, so that they don’t miss out on voting. The same 11 voting sites will still be available as the previous election and there will be a brand new addition of 2 satellite voting sites. The idea behind this proposal is to encourage more voting turnout. If approved, the voting centers will be in place for the 2022 primaries.
The election results will be no different with counting, observation, and tabulation, which is all centralized.
The concerns of security were brought up. They were very proud to say that Indiana had one of the most secure voting systems in the US. Locally we are subjugated to random inspections of all of our machines.
The proposed voting center plan can be found at the following link: http://www.decaturcounty.in.gov/doc/index/vote_center/vote_center_plan_-_001_-_without_resolutions.docx
They encourage people to read the proposal and fill out the comment cards which can also be found on the Decatur County courthouse website. This plan is not a concrete plan and they hope to make it as accommodating as possible.
http://www.decaturcounty.in.gov/
Morgan Schofield
WTRE News
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