Dorothy Schneider, writing for the Journal & Courier, has an article about the support for vote centers among Lafayette-area lawmakers. Sen. Alting and Reps. Klinker, and Truitt all expressed support for continuing vote centers in Tippecanoe County. The idea for these centers is that you can go anywhere in the county to vote and get a ballot that is appropriate for the precinct in which you reside. So, for example, I have been able to vote downtown instead of having to go back to the voting location closest where I lived.
Tippecanoe County Clerk, Linda Phillips, says that ending the pilot program in the county – set to expire in 2011 absent further legislative action – will cost the county at least $50,000.
In 2009, Gov. Daniels vetoed a bill that would have allowed vote centers. Secretary of State Rokita disagreed with the Governor. In 2010, it got bogged down with a measure that would have allowed more permissive absentee voting.
Update A reader advised me that their understanding of the Governor’s objections in 2009, really didn’t have much to do with vote centers at all, but with some other provisions in the 2009 bill, notably those having to do with provisional voting and the procedures for establishing satellite voting (which is something different from vote centers) locations. So, the likelihood is that the Governor would go along with a clean vote center bill.
Eliminating the neighborhood polling places in favor of fewer vote centers might help some folks, but it will definately prevent those without transportation from voting. Vote centers MUST be accompanied by vote by mail for all if you truly want to make voting more convenient for all and not just those with cars.
The pilot project requires one vote center for every 10,000 voters. That means 1/3 of our counties would have 3 or fewer places to vote in the entire county. That is simply not acceptable!
People also may not realize that the pilot program gives an incredible amount of autonomy to the county to conduct their election almost any way they want, with NO uniformity and NO oversight. The Republican Senators have not been willing to discuss uniform standards, liking instead to tout local control. Local control on some issues is definately a worthy discussion, but our elections need some degree of uniformity if only to protect the integrity of elections we’ve worked so hard to achieve.
Most will agree Vote Centers have the potential to save money, but I hope saving money is not the only standard by which we conduct our elections.