Quick counting
As of 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, Bartholomew County election officials had counted 6,675 absentee-by-mail ballots cast for the Nov. 3 presidential election, and had just 42 absentee-by-mail ballots left to count.
The 42 ballots were dropped off in person at the Bartholomew County Courthouse by the noon deadline Tuesday, said Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps.
“The absentee board is bundling them up and we’ll get ready to count those, but all the rest of the 6,675 have all been counted and so we’re in great shape,” Phelps said.
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Once the 42 ballots were counted, local election officials started counting the 20,843 votes cast early in-person at FairOaks Mall. Phelps released the early voting results, which were more than 50 percent of the vote, very close to the 6:30 p.m. target time on Tuesday night.
Trump hat vs. Nasty Woman T-shirt
An incident of possible voter intimidation was reported to the Bartholomew County Election Board over a Trump supporter objecting to a woman inside the Elizabethtown voting center having blue hair and wearing a “Nasty Woman” T-shirt.
The Trump supporter said he went to the Elizabethtown Fire Station to vote at 10:15 a.m. wearing a Trump hat, and was asked to remove it before being allowed to vote. Election rules state voters may not vote while wearing Trump or Biden campaign items, and local candidates campaign items.
After removing his hat and leaving it outside, the Trump supporter voted, but said there was a “confrontation” when he questioned why he had to remove his hat, but the woman inside the voting center was allowed to wear the Nasty Woman shirt.
In protest, the voter left his Trump hat on the entryway door as he left the polling place, and said he was hanging around “nearby” the voting center after the incident. The incident was reported to the election board by those inside the voting center after it happened.
A Bartholomew County Sheriff deputy was sent to look into the issue and make sure the polling place was secure.
Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps said the woman at the polling place was not a poll worker as the Trump supporter alleged, and therefore was allowed to have blue hair and the T-shirt, as it did not have a candidate’s name on it but rather an actual organization she belonged to. Poll watchers are not election poll workers and are not subject to poll worker rules, Phelps said. Poll watchers from both parties were allowed to apply to the county’s election board to monitor local voting sites.
Phelps described the confrontation aspect as a “tense moment.”
Bartholomew County Democrats had said their poll watchers would be a local group who identify themselves as “Nasty Women.” The reference is to a Donald Trump statement about women who were not Trump supporters.
Hackman recovering from COVID-19
The Bartholomew County Republican Party chairwoman was conspicuously missing from Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s visit to Columbus on Monday, as well as election day activities.
That is because Barbara Hackman, 64, placed herself in self-isolation on Oct. 24 after testing positive for COVID-19, she said.
Also serving as the Bartholomew County Treasurer, Hackman said all employees of her office also had to self-isolate for 10 days after she tested positive. The treasurer’s office has been closed to the public except by appointments for several months, and Hackman said she was still able to do her work either on her home computer or by telephone.
Hackman said she believes she caught the virus from someone who was asymptomatic, and that she did not display any signs of the virus until after a family fishing trip. The symptoms outlined by Hackman included a low grade fever, chills, aches and a cough, and were “very, very mild,” she said. As of Tuesday, the only symptoms remaining were a cough, as well as a loss of taste and smell, Hackman said.
After speaking with medical professionals, as well as Amanda Organist, director of nursing at the Bartholomew County Health Department, Hackman said her prognosis calls for a quick recovery. Hackman said she hopes to be resume all her responsibilities on Friday.
First-time voters
Several first time voters turned out for Tuesday’s election. When young Zoey Dehner of Columbus signed in at St. Johns Masonic Lodge, one inspector yelled out “first time voter,” and the room erupted in enthusiastic applause. After casting her ballot, Dehner said several issues were on her mind, but she felt the spread of COVID-19 makes the races for board of trustees in the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. especially important.
Another first-time voter was Trina Rose, 47, of Columbus. When asked what motivated her to vote this year, Rose said this election is an important one due to all the changes that have taken place in our world and in our township. “I’m a grateful believer in Jesus Christ and the Word of God, and that’s how my vote has been leaning,” Rose said.
A very important election
A Columbus woman cast her first official vote in the 1960 election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. However, Nancy Peaslee can go back further than that. She recalls her school held a non-binding presidential election where she had to choose between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson.
But after 60 years of voting, Peaslee said she believes this year’s election is one of the most important to her.
“I want to see the right president get in there,” Peaslee said. “That’s it. That’s why I voted. As a senior, I don’t want them to take my Social Security. I paid for that.”
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For more photos from voting centers around Bartholomew County on Tuesday, see therepublic.com.
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