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Clerk-treasurer pleased with response to voting change after debut last week

Poll Worker Janice Jordan-Ryan (left) rotates a tablet to Bob Jennings so he can sign in to vote early at the Parkview Huntington Family YMCA, a satellite vote center, on Tuesday, April 28. The Y will serve as a vote center on Election Day, Tuesday, May 5.
Poll Worker Janice Jordan-Ryan (left) rotates a tablet to Bob Jennings so he can sign in to vote early at the Parkview Huntington Family YMCA, a satellite vote center, on Tuesday, April 28. The Y will serve as a vote center on Election Day, Tuesday, May 5. Photo by Steve Clark.

Huntington voters began casting their ballots at the new vote centers last week, and Huntington County Clerk Kittie Keiffer says she’s pleased with the response to the change.

“The people waiting in line have had extremely positive things to say,” Keiffer says.

For years, voters were assigned to specific polling places based on their home addresses. In February, the Huntington County Election Board approved the implementation of vote centers, establishing four polling places throughout the city of Huntington.

Each of the four polling places in place for this spring’s primary is open to any registered voter living in Huntington, regardless of that voter’s specific address.

The 2015 primary election includes only offices in the city of Huntington, but the concept will be expanded to the county’s smaller communities for this fall’s general election, which will include town offices. In 2016, which includes a presidential election, vote centers will be located throughout Huntington County.

The rollout only in the city gave the election board a chance to ease into the new procedure, Keiffer says, finding out what works and what doesn’t.
As in past years, a polling place opened in the courthouse in early April and has drawn about 300 early voters. The first vote center opened Tuesday, April 28, at the Parkview Huntington Family YMCA and, in the first two days, drew about 150 voters.

“They were waiting to come to the Y to try the vote centers,” Keiffer says. “The Y has definitely been a good move for us.”

This is the first time a polling location has been located at the YMCA. The vote centers at the YMCA and at Heritage Hall, which opened on April 30, were both open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. the week prior to Election Day, May 5. Keiffer says those hours may be adjusted, at least at the YMCA.

“As we observe the Y location, there is a huge gathering of people early in the morning,” she says, suggesting that the voting machines there could be opened earlier in the day.

Ideally, the vote centers at the YMCA and at Heritage Hall would have opened the same day, Keiffer says, but an event already scheduled at Heritage Hall kept that from happening.

Vote centers that don’t see a good turnout could be moved to other locations in upcoming elections, Keiffer says, and Heritage Hall may be one of those.
“We don’t expect that to be a heavily traveled vote center,” she says. “They don’t have the traffic the Y has … but there will always be a south side location.
“I think that it’s important that the voter knows it’s evolving, but we’re extremely happy with what we have in place right now,” she says.

The election board looked at several things in selecting locations of vote centers, Keiffer says. The centers needed to be in heavily traveled locations, have large parking areas and be handicap accessible, she says.

And they needed to be convenient to voters.

“Where do people go? Where do they shop? Where do they work?” she says.

Part of the switch to vote centers is an attempt to increase voter turnout by making voting more convenient, but Keiffer doesn’t expect to see the turnout to increase during the 2015 primary. Turnout is always low in a municipal election, she notes.

During the most recent municipal election in 2011, just over 29 percent of the city’s registered voters cast ballots. For this year’s municipal primary, 10,541 city residents are registered to vote.

In the most recent presidential election, year 2012, there were 24,964 voters in the entire county. Primary turnout was just over 25 percent.
Voting continues at the Huntington County Courthouse today, Monday, May 4, from 9 a.m. to noon.

The last chance to vote in the primary is on the official Election Day, Tuesday, May 5. Vote centers will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the courthouse, the YMCA, Heritage Hall and the Huntington Church of the Nazarene.

Voters must present a state-issued ID card or driver’s license after arriving at the vote center. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles license branch in Huntington will be open today, May 4, from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Tuesday, May 5, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to process new, amended or replacement ID cards and renewed, amended or replacement driver’s licenses.

This spring’s ballot has eight city offices, including mayor, although not all races are contested.

The Republican primary features four candidates for mayor, including Larry Buzzard, incumbent Brooks Fetters, Tony Hiles and Greg Sprinkle; two candidates for first district city council representative, incumbent Charles Chapman and Dane Owens; and four candidates for the two at-large seats on city council, Rex Baxter, incumbent John “Greg” Davis, Seth Marshall and incumbent Jack Slusser.

In the Democrat primary, incumbent Bill Oswalt faces a challenge from Larry Parker.

Several positions are uncontested.

Uncontested candidates in the Republican primary are incumbent Christi Scher, for clerk-treasurer; incumbent Paul Pike, for city council second district; and incumbent Joe Blomeke, for city council fifth district.

Robert Miller has no opposition as he seeks the Democrat nomination for at-large representative on the city council.

No candidates from either party are seeking the fourth district seat in city council, which is being vacated by Wayne Powell.

Parties still have time before the fall election to appoint candidates for positions that had no candidate in the primary. Independent candidates also have additional time to file.