Voting centers are not coming to Hamilton County for the 2026 primary election.
A Hamilton County Election Board meeting at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18 included a vote on the possibility of replacing the county’s precinct-based voting system with vote centers. In order to pass, the vote needed to be unanimous.
To be enacted, the proposal would then have to be adopted by both the County Council and the County Commissioners.
County Clerk Kathy Williams said she believed the county was ready to make the move.
“With our growth, to over 280,000 registered voters, it was the right fit at the right time,” Williams said. “We have been patient, worked through the process, and were at a point where it would have worked for us. It all came down to needing three votes and we were one short.”
The final vote was 2-1 with Hamilton County Clerk Kathy Williams and Democrat-appointed Member Greg Purvis voting in favor of the vote center change and Republican-appointed Member Ray Adler voting nay.
Adler explained his reasoning for voting against the measure, citing Allen County’s approval on Sept. 15.
“I just think we should let Allen County go through it and see what problems they have,” Adler said. “We’re changing voting for hundreds of thousands of people and I want to make sure it’s not an experiment.”
Of Indiana’s 92 counties, 68 have switched to vote centers.
“It’s disappointing because I know there was a lot of bipartisan support for the measure,” Purvis said. “I wish Mr. Adler had shared some of his concerns more openly. Maybe we could have worked through it. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to make sure this worked right just to have it go nowhere.”
If approved, the vote centers would have reduced the number of required staff to hold an election from 111 inspectors to 57, from 255 clerks to 228 (bipartisan), and from 356 judges to 228 (bipartisan).
Cost of renting voting locations was not expected to change by a significant amount if the change was made.
I generally support Mr. Adler’s decision. Two old maxims: If it’s not broke, don’t fix it and just because all the other kids are doing it doesn’t make it right.
I appreciate that staffing our large number of precincts is difficult, though not more expensive than the fewer regional centers. But, there is a cost to the voters too… voters are required to drive, ride or walk further than their neighborhood precincts and risk confusion on 2 or more complications that often occur.
On time spent voting, in my 48 years of voting (1976 – 2024), I’ve waited in line over an hour at both my local precincts and the regional early/absentee voting centers – last Fall 90 minutes at Cool Creek. I don’t believe for one moment that concentrating more voters in one quarter the number of regional center (though larger) will reduce wait time for anyone – indeed, most will see much longer waits – just common sense and simple math.
I agree – watch Allen and other large counties and then decide. Is Mr. Adler the only county official with any common sense? It’s not the last bus leaving!
Given that nearly 70% of Indiana counties have moved to the voting center model – one would think there’d be enough of a track record to have evaluated it’s effectiveness & be able to render a more focused justification for opposition than ; ‘wait & see’
It seems to me that every effort to lower costs in business by decreasing access and reducing staff and substituting computer interfaces only reduces service to customers. If so many counties have adopted this approach is there evidence showing effectiveness and citizen satisfaction?