This ought to be the final map unless I missed a county somehow. Fountain County is the latest addition. The final tally seems to be fairly close to my August 19th guess which was:
Correct: Perry, Dubois, Martin, Daviess, Pike, Knox, Sullivan, Vigo, Vermillion, Fountain, Benton, White, Pulaski, Starke, Marshall, St. Joseph.

Incorrect: Clay, Parke, Warren, Elkhart, and Kosciusko

Did not guess: Carroll, Cass, Fulton.

Anyway, the map:

I finally got around to submitting my Brief in Support of the Central Time Zone for White County Specifically and Indiana Generally to the United States Department of Transportation. I provided an overview discussing SEA 127 and Governor Daniels deficient submission to the USDOT. I provided a summary of the law, citing 15 USC 261 which gives the Secretary of Transporation broad discretion with respect to time zones and does not confine him to looking at “convenience of commerce” issues. In fact, I argue, the law seems to urge regard for distance from Greenwich as an important factor alongside convenience of commerce. Neither is dispositive. I also cited to Time Life Broadcasting v. Boyd, 289 F. Supp 219 (D.C. 1968) which provides a nice description of prior proceedings in Indiana and a map of the time zones prior to 1968. The shift to the Eastern Time Zone in 1968 actually appears to have begun when the Governor petitioned to have the entire state on Central time but reached a compromise where the state was technically on Eastern Standard Time, but because of a dispensation to ignore Daylight Saving Time, was functionally on Central Daylight Time.

Then I put forth the geographic arguments and the economic arguments, borrowing heavily from what I’ve read from folks like Paul O’Malley, Jeff Sagarin, and John Gaski. I also take a moment to make sure the USDOT is aware of the Chamber’s astroturf campaign. Enjoy.

Update Here is the pdf version at the USDOT docket website.

Other submissions I noticed:

Prof. John Gaski

Jeff Sagarin

Jim Burdsall (also here.

Perry and Lawrence Counties have voted to ask for central time. Benton County is in limbo since the Commissioner who wrote the USDOT asking for central time has submitted another letter indicating he doesn’t think he had the authority to ask for the time zone change. I believe Benton County is holding another meeting either today or tomorrow and maybe something more official will come out. But, for my map, there are no “take backs” so Benton is still in red. Including Benton County, that brings the tally to 18 counties asking for Central on top of the 10 that are already in the central time zone.

The map:

Update 9/16 Some news coverage of the latest on the time zone issue:

Mary Beth Schneider for the Indianapolis Star complete with a quote from everyone’s favorite marketing professor, John Gaski. He notes that 61% of Indiana’s domestic exports go to Central Time or points west of Central Time. She also has a quote from Chamber of Commerce president Kevin Brinegar. Brinegar predicts that the USDOT will give few or no hearings because they “got it right 30 years ago”. He conveniently forgets that part of the time zone move 30 years ago was the premise that Indiana would not observe DST.

The Associated Press has an article on the decision by Lawrence and Perry counties.

The Lafayette Journal Courier has a update on the west-central counties that says Benton County hopes to vote on the issue today. And, interestingly, Warren and Fountain may make a decision today. Fountain’s decision won’t come until around 4:00 p.m. today (Eastern Standard Time)– ironically, it could be late if the USDOT docket is only open during business hours because D.C. is an hour ahead.

Thanks to Jim Bognan for the catch. Back on August 29, 2005, the Benton County Commissioners voted for Central Time. Here (pdf document) is a link to the Benton County Commissioners petition.

So, to update the tally (and hopefully I’ll get a new map up in the near future), we have the following 16 counties requesting central time: St. Joseph, Starke, Marshall, Pulaski, Fulton, Benton, White, Cass, Carroll, Vermillion, Sullivan, Knox, Daviess, Martin, Pike, Dubois. (That would be in addition to the 10 counties which are currently on Central Time).

Perry is still on the fence with a meeting coming up tomorrow. There has been some conflicting information out of Fountain County.

The map:

Martin County voted for Central Time according to a helpful county employee. I couldn’t find news coverage or get an answer at the Martin County Commissioner’s office, so I called one of the other county offices (office withheld to protect a potentially innocent employee if I got this wrong) where I was advised that Martin County is going to ask for Central time.

Orange County is supposed to be voting this morning as well.

Update Here is the story on Martin County from the Washington Times Herald. As with most counties, the decision was 2 to 1.

Clearly uncomfortable with the decision, commissioners Mike Dant and John Collins made and seconded the motion to ask for the change because 18 residents who attended the earlier meetings preferred Central time, compared with 15 who wanted to stay with Eastern. Even after adding two more voice votes for Eastern time, expressed during the commissioners’ meeting, Central still came out on top, especially after adding 12 proxy votes that auditor Frances “Cookie” Taylor counted in the final tally. Only two proxy votes favored staying on Eastern time, she said.

Update #2 Orange County voted 2 to 1 against asking for central time. Benton County (PDF document) voted for Central Time back at the end of August. The link is to the Commissioner’s petition to USDOT.

My guess is that leaves us with a probably Perry County move to switch and possibly (but not likely) something happening in Fountain, Warren, and/or Benton.

Warren and Fountain Counties are waiting on making a time zone decision according to the Danville (IL) Commercial News. Just an aside, but I think the fact that I had to go to an Illinois paper to figure out what Fountain and Warren counties were doing speaks volume about where their center of gravity is, time wise. Neither county is expected to make a decision before Friday.

They are correct that the Sept. 16 deadline is not solid, in that time zone petitions on a county-by-county basis are always accepted by the USDOT. But I think if there is a serious desire to be on central time, now is the time for those counties to act. I have no real evidence on this, but I tend to believe that the USDOT will be more permissive about moving the time zone now than it will be in the future.

Pike County joins the list of counties asking for Central time according to Jennifer Whitson of the Evansville Courier Press. She also reports that Martin County was scheduled to take up the issue on Tuesday night, Orange County was scheduled for this morning, and Perry County may take a vote on Thursday. She also mentions that Vigo, Greene, and Crawford counties have all decided to stick with eastern.

A bit of special focus on White County’s choice to move to central time for no better reason than that’s where I happen to live. Commissioners Steve Burton and John Heimlich voted in favor of Central time while Commissioner Bud Ferguson voted against it. White County is in a difficult position in that Jasper County is already on Central, Pulaski is requesting central, Cass is on central, and Carroll is requesting central. However, Tippecanoe is going to stay on Eastern. I don’t think Howard or Clinton counties were ever really on the table. (Then again, I never would have guessed Carroll or Cass would have voted for central). And, like I said, I haven’t heard word #1 about Benton County. So, in terms of land mass, most of White County is or could be surrounded by Central time zone counties. In terms of population centers, it’s Lafayette in Tippecanoe County. Making things a bit more interesting is the fact that the Tippecanoe County Commissioners solicitation of public opinion resulted in about 2/3 preferring Central to 1/3 Eastern. (At their public meeting, the breakdown was 50/50.) The Tippecanoe County Commissioners are taking a more conservative approach by waiting to see what happens elsewhere and seeing how county residents do or don’t like Eastern time.

White and Dubois Counties to petition for Central Time

Commissioners in White & Dubois Counties voted to petition to move to the Central Time Zone.

Update Looks like Knox County is also going to petition for central time.

Update #2 St. Joseph County just made it official. Commissioners Ross and Bodle voted for Central while Commissioner Dobson voted for Eastern.

Ross said he has heard manufacturers favor Eastern time, and distributors ask for Central time, but the local economy is changing.

“The nature of St. Joseph County over the years has been changing over the years to less manufacturing to us being a distribution center for the whole Midwest,” Ross said.

Ross said that citizens he represents also favor Central time and that weighs heavily with him.

Update #3 The map has been updated.

The map:

Everybody’s favorite professor, John Gaski, has an opinion piece in the Elkhart Truth. Some of his points:
1. Chicago firms manage to do a lot of business in the east without being on Eastern time — why not a hue and cry from the Chicago or Illinois chambers of commerce?

2. 39% of Indiana’s domestic exports go to the eastern time zone. That means 61% go to Central Time or points west of Central Time suggesting that the “sweet spot” is Central Time.

3. Since leisure activities are a factor in the debate, he points out “area politicians should note one non-trivial reality: The only realistic entertainment option for many working people is a few hours of television in the evening. When on Eastern time with the later prime-time schedule, those people suffer.”