Today is Election Day, and it is unlike any other presidential election in the history of Bartholomew County.
Voters are heading to the polls during a pandemic that has killed at least 231,125 people nationwide, including 59 Bartholomew County residents. More than half of the county’s registered voters have already voted, by absentee or in early voting.
If you are casting your ballot today, here is what you need to know:
Where to vote
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Registered voters may vote at any of the 12 vote centers that will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at the following locations:
Flintwood Wesleyan Church, 5300 25th St.
St. Johns Masonic Lodge, 4131 Rocky Ford Road
FairOaks Mall (25th Street side), 2104 25th St.
Donner Center, 739 22nd St.
River of Living Water Christian Church (formerly Berean Bible), 51 N. Brooks St.
Terrace Lake Church, 4260 W. County Road 200S
Westside Community Church, 124 Tipton Lakes Blvd.
Elizabethtown Fire Station, 10203 E. Legal Tender Road in Elizabethtown
Hope Moravian Church, 202 Main St. in Hope
Clifford Fire Station, 7850 N. Depot St. in Clifford
German Township Fire Station, 9428 Main St. in Taylorsville
Ogilville United Methodist Church, 11910 S. State Road 58
Requirements to vote
Voters need to be Bartholomew County residents and must have registered to vote by Oct. 5 to vote in this election. Voters also need a valid ID, which can be a driver’s license, passport, military ID or state college photo ID, said Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps.
A driver’s license that expired less than two years before Election Day — no earlier than Nov. 3, 2018 — is still an acceptable form of ID for the purposes of voting, Phelps said.
“The state gives a two-year grace period for those who might not have re-upped their driver’s license,” Phelps said.
Voters whose driver’s licenses expired before Nov. 3, 2018 without alternative IDs can go to the local branch of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, 4445 Ray Boll Blvd., which will have extended hours today from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for people who need driver’s licenses or identification cards to vote.
For questions about ID requirements, voters can call the Bartholomew County Clerk’s office at 812-379-1604 or go to indianavoters.in.gov.
Safety measures
The spread of the coronavirus in Indiana, which has killed 4,150 Hoosiers and sickened more than 182,100, has dramatically impacted how this presidential election will look and feel, with election officials taking safety measures to avoid spreading the virus at polling places.
Similar to the June 2 primary, things will look different at polling locations due to safety measures that aim to reduce the chances of spreading COVID-19 at vote centers.
Poll workers and election staff will wear masks and gloves and are prepared to use dozens of gallons of hand sanitizer and surface disinfectant to keep surfaces clean over the course of the day.
Each voting location will have additional poll workers whose only responsibility is to wipe down and disinfect any surface a voter touches, including poll pads, tables and voting machines.
In addition, markings will be placed on the floors of each polling location to keep at least 6 feet of distance between voters who are awaiting their turn to cast their ballots. Electronic voting machines will also be spaced at least 6 feet apart, Phelps said.
Phelps said there will be an average of seven poll workers at each of the 12 voting centers. No workers have dropped out due to concerns over the virus, he said.
Phelps said he and his team have “more than plenty” personal protective equipment for the election.
In September, the Bartholomew County election officials received a shipment of personal protective equipment for voters and poll workers at all 12 vote centers.
The shipment included 15,250 masks for voters, 350 N-95 masks for poll workers, 26,900 disposable gloves for voters, 5,700 disposable gloves for poll workers, 20 half-gallon dispensers of hand sanitizer, an additional 288 gallons of sanitizer, 24 gallons of surface disinfectant, 128 (8-ounce) spray bottles with disinfectant and 1,250 microfiber towels and 40 rolls of blue masking tape to attach social distancing markers and PPE posters.
Local election officials received a similar shipment in the spring before the primary.
“We had plenty of sanitizer left over from the spring, plenty of microfiber towels and even spray for the voting equipment, in addition to what was given to us this election,” Phelps said. “We’ll have more than enough.”
How the election works
Registered voters will select a candidate of their choice for several national, state and local offices, including U.S. president, U.S. House of Representatives, governor of Indiana, state attorney general, state representative, Bartholomew County Council, Bartholomew Consolidated School Board, among others.
However, if voters choose to vote straight party — meaning voting all Democrat or all Republican for all offices — they still will have to “manually go down and select” their preferred choices for the Bartholomew County Council at-large race, school board races and the judicial retention questions, Phelps said.
Voters can call the Bartholomew County Clerk’s office at 812-379-1604 or go to indianavoters.in.gov to see who is on their ballot.
If you experience problems or have questions while at a vote center, Phelps said voters should speak to a poll worker, who will then contact the Bartholomew County Clerk’s office if necessary.
Voters may vote at any one of the 12 voting centers, Phelps said.
There are three times during the day when the voting centers tend to be busier, including 6 to 8 a.m., 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m.
Updates on wait times at voting centers and other information will be posted to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Facebook page every couple of hours on Election Day, Phelps said.
Voters should keep in mind that no political attire or objects with the names of candidates or political parties are allowed in the voting center under state law — that includes T-shirts, hats with campaign slogans, buttons, masks or other paraphernalia of candidates in previous elections.
If a voter wears campaign paraphernalia into a vote center, poll workers will ask the voter to cover up or remove the items, such as putting a jacket over a shirt, taking off a hat or changing their shirt and returning later to the polls.
Refusing to remove any of these items when asked at the polling location is a Class A misdemeanor, Phelps said.
There were a couple instances of voters wearing Trump and Biden campaign masks while in line to vote at FairOaks Mall, Phelps said.
In each case, poll workers gave the voters the option of turning their masks inside out or removing them and wearing different masks that the poll workers had on site. The voters complied without any issues, Phelps said.
“The poll workers have been trained on what to watch for,” Phelps said.
What’s at stake?
On the national level, the White House and control of Congress are up for grabs in this election.
Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden is challenging President Donald Trump, a Republican who is seeking re-election, along with running mate and Columbus native Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump defeated former Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton in Bartholomew County in 2016, with 63% of the vote on his way to winning the presidency, according to county records.
In Congress, the Democrats control the House, while the Republican have a majority in the Senate.
But all that could change depending on how the election plays out. A total of 35 senators and al 435 members of the House are up for re-election, including Rep. Greg Pence, a Republican from Columbus and brother of the vice president who is seeking re-election in Indiana’s Sixth Congressional District, which includes Bartholomew County.
Pence is being challenged by Democrat Jeannine Lee Lake and Libertarian Tom Ferkinhoff. Pence defeated Lake and Ferkinhoff in 2018 with nearly 64% of the vote, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office.
At the state level, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is seeking a second term in office. Democrat Woody Myers and Libertarian Donald Rainwater are challenging Holcomb.
Additionally, state Rep. Ryan Lauer is seeking re-election in State House District 59, and is being challenged by Democrat Dale Nowlin.
Locally, voters will select candidates to fill three Bartholomew County Council at-large seats, as well as seats for BCSC School Board Districts 3, 5 and 7.
Currently, there are seven Republicans and no Democrats on the county council.
Several local races only have one candidate on the ballot, including Bartholomew County Superior Court 2 judge, coroner, surveyor and two county commissioner seats.
Expected turnout
If early voting was any indication, turnout for the 2020 presidential election could be historic.
A record 20,843 voters turned out at FairOaks Mall for early in-person voting, which ended Monday at noon, with more than half of registered voters casting ballots before Election Day.
By comparison, turnout in Bartholomew County was 60% in the 2016 presidential election.
“I still think it’s going to be a historic turnout. I still anticipate right around 8,000 to 10,000 voters on Election Day and put us in the 37,000 to 38,000 range overall,” Phelps said. “…I told our poll workers that I think it’ll be a steady day.”
The results
Phelps said he expects to have absentee ballot returns in between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. tonight, depending on how long the lines are when the polls close.
The final results are expected to be posted between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., Phelps said.
That means voters can expect to at least know the outcomes of the county council race, the school board races and the Indiana State House District 59 race just hours after the polls close, Phelps said.
However, it may take longer than usual for statewide and national results to come in as election officials have to process a historic surge in early and mail-in ballots, which generally take longer to count, The Associated Press reported.
The local results will be posted on the Bartholomew County Clerk’s website: bartholomew.in.gov/clerk.
To follow The Republic’s election coverage on Tuesday, visit therepublic.com.
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For more information, visit the Bartholomew County Clerk’s website at www.bartholomew.in.gov/clerk.html or call the Bartholomew County Voter Registration office at 812-379-1604 or visit indianavoters.in.gov.
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Absentee-by-mail ballots are due by noon today. Voters can return them in-person at the Bartholomew County Courthouse, 234 Washington St.
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The local election results will be posted on the Bartholomew County Clerk’s website: bartholomew.in.gov/clerk.
To follow The Republic’s election coverage on Tuesday, visit therepublic.com.
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