The Porter County Election Board worked through some minor kinks with the county’s new voting equipment during the election certification at noon on Friday in the tabulation room of the Elections & Registration Office.
Porter County Clerk Jessica Bailey and Elections and Registration Office staff reported four provisional ballots were being accepted while 10 “bad provisionals” were rejected. “One (voter) had already voted at early voting and we don’t let them vote twice,” said Director of Elections and Registration Sundae Schoon.
“OK, so we have four ballots that are cured to your satisfaction?” asked Election Board President Paul Rausch.
“Yes,” Schoon replied.
Curing is the term for correcting any type of ballot, be it absentee or in-person, that isn’t correct in some way, “like if you didn’t bring an ID. A college ID doesn’t count currently,” Bailey explained. A letter goes out to any voter who needs to provide further documentation.
“If they bring in the necessary information to have their vote count” within 10 days, it is counted, Schoon said. Voters had until noon on Wednesday to cure their ballots.
Schoon then realized the staff didn’t know how to override the new scanner and tabulator to prevent it from rejecting the provisional ballots. “No one taught us how to do it,” she said.
“Oh yeah. It has the provisional marks on it,” Bailey said.
“So if you can’t override it, you just have to remake it?” asked election board member Jeff Chidester.
“Yes, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to remake them,” Bailey replied.
A bipartisan team made up of one Republican and one Democratic staff member then entered the accepted provisional ballots manually, as the new scanner and tabulator machines will not accept any that have the black provisional ballot box marked in the corner. Bailey said this process is also undergone on election night.
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“Sometimes at central counts, people will provide you a ballot that has a coffee stain on it, or, slicing it open, they’ll cut it in half,” she said. Then a bipartisan team will remake the ballot in a process known as duplicating.
Everyone hired in the office must declare their party when they apply. “They are hired based on party affiliation as well as job description,” Bailey explained. That said, neither side favors their party, she added, but works together to serve all voters.
The staff wanted to roll out the new machines for the primary so they would have all the kinks worked out in time for the general election in November.
“They gave us enough training to get us through the election,” Schoon said. “We’re going to go through intense training over the summer.”
Five absentee ballots also came into the Elections and Registration Office in time to be counted – one just before certification began. The final tally after the certification raised the voter turnout from 14.49% to 14.5%, proving that every vote does indeed count.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.