Election Board adjourns meeting without decision

A City of Bloomington Election Board meeting regarding the number of satellite absentee-voting sites was adjourned with no result Tuesday.

The city already has 1,842 applications for absentee ballots by mail, said Jessica Sears, election board member. Anna Strand, president of the IU College Democrats  said organizations on campus have registered thousands of new voters and they want more early-voting sites spread throughout campus to accommodate the rush of students they are anticipating.

Guy Loftman, election board member, motioned to have sites in Ellettsville, Sherwood Oaks Apartments and on the IU campus. The motion failed.

Jim Fielder, the board’s secretary, disagreed with that plan because of a previous attempt at satellite voting.

“I took the biggest part of the heat from having satellite voting only on campus last time so I made a commitment to the county that if we had satellite voting again I would make it available beyond campus,” Fielder said.

Fielder pushed for five locations – two days in each location – with one of the locations at IU. He also proposed sites at the Calvary Baptist Church by Bloomington High School North, Sherwood Oaks Apartments, the Highway Garage and another apartment complex.

“We need to be looking at this as voting centers instead of one location really wiping up on this,” Fielder said, referring to the IU campus.

Both Strand and Rose Byrne, president of Students for Barack Obama, offered to provide student workers for extra sites on campus free of charge to the city because funding was an issue.

“We want as many possible sites on campus of course,” Byrne said. “We have secured 29 on campus voting days in different sites.”

Indiana State Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, and chair for the state elections committee, said he sees a major need for more voting sites on campus.

“Certainly a minimum of three on campus and four would be better, and I would even make the argument for five because a lot of these students are first-time voters and the whole process of checking in and voting, they’re going to be slower than us, so extra time to process them would help,” Pierce said.

The city’s focus was to make sure it brings equality to all of Monroe County voters, not just target the IU campus. The disagreement about the number of locations and sites led to the decision being left to the next meeting.

“As of this reading there will be no satellite voting until the board meets again,” said Jack L. Schmit, election board chairman.