Few SNAFUs prove Hamilton County’s elections work well

Too often the news only has stories that report on things that went wrong. This is a good news story.

The primary election this year had few snafus. There are 234 precincts in Hamilton County. While not every precinct has its own individual polling place, the number of locations needed and the number of poll workers required to run an election always present a challenge. Beth Sheller, our elections administer, and Kathy Williams, the County Clerk, did a remarkable job of supervising a near flawless election.

Oh, there were the normal snafus. One worker tried to plug the machine in the wrong outlet. That was quickly corrected by a call to one of our capable technicians. One voter picked a ballot and mid-stream wanted to change ballots. They became frustrated when they were not permitted to do so. One lady did not want to give her name, and another did not want to have to choose which ballot she was going to vote.

All minor issues.

Most importantly, the high-class tones set in a prior election between Judges Murphy and Gookins continued. The numerous judicial candidates were cordial, collegial, and without complaints to the Election Board, with only one exception: candidate Swenson was challenged on the use of a symbol that appeared to be close to a prohibited military insignia used to highlight her service as a veteran. When challenged, she produced a license for its use and promptly put stickers over signs to mitigate any appearance of impropriety.

I hope this collegial attitude continues in future elections. Hamilton County has certainly been blessed by the large number of high-quality judicial candidates.

The constant changing of precincts because of growth causes some uncertainty as poll locations sometimes change from year to year. This writer hopes the County Commissioners will start enforcing the law that provides that voting can be held in local schools. Schools typically have sufficient parking, handicapped access, and large rooms to accommodate voters. Schools would provide a more readily identifiable and stable location. While student safety has been a concern in the past, e-learning has likely solved that issue.

Election staff also continue to plan for potential voting centers. They argue that having 30 voting centers spread out among the nine townships would allow more poll worker expertise to be available at each location and avoid the problem of last-minute illness or failure to show of election workers. Research is available pro and con on the voting center issue. The debate continues on how to get the most accurate election results in a timely and economical manner.

Hamilton County will have an election this fall. Be sure to check your voter registration and make sure it is up to date. You may need to update voter registration if you change your name or change your address. You can check your status at indianavoters.com.

Candidates are urged to beautify Hamilton County by picking up their signs. I urge voters to help in that regard.

Ray Adler is a longtime attorney with offices at The Adler Building, 136 S. 9th St., Downtown Noblesville. He is also one of the owners of The Hamilton County Reporter Newspaper.