Elkhart County residents will have fewer places to vote on Election Day. The election board voted Monday to close three of the county’s 29 vote centers for November’s general election.
Republican board member Tom Reusser at first suggested closing seven. He said it’s important to make voting convenient, but the county had to be realistic about what it could staff.
"You ask either one of the party chairs, they will tell you that it was quite difficult finding enough volunteers – up, literally, to the last minute," Reusser said. "This causes chaos. It causes inadequate training. It causes confusion."
Democratic board member Jennifer Shell didn’t think large-scale consolidation should take place between a primary and general election, but she said she was willing to close two of the sites. "I am worried about, if we remove too many vote centers, that’s going to suppress the vote," Shell said. "I think we already have a turnout problem, and I think it’s going to make it even worse."
The election board heard several comments opposing a reduction in vote centers. Brent Curry, the president of the Elkhart County NAACP and a member of the Elkhart City Council, worried that it would disenfranchise residents.
"Years ago, when we had the precincts, we had 117 places to go vote," Curry said. "Now, we’re talking about 29 or 25. What’s the problem?"
Still, voter registration officials argued that poll workers are at their limit, and recruiting new ones has proven difficult, despite pay increases.
As a compromise, election board members agreed to close the vote centers at St. James AME Church in Elkhart, the Elkhart County Public Services Building in Goshen and the American Legion Post in Middlebury. But they didn’t rule out more consolidation in the future, with the possibility of fewer vote centers during municipal elections.
