Bartholomew County election officials have received a shipment of personal protective equipment to protect staff and poll workers at vote centers for the June 2 primary.
The Indiana National Guard delivered two pallets of protective equipment Thursday to election officials at the Bartholomew County Courthouse, said Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps.
The shipment included 2,450 masks, 1,500 pairs of gloves, 25 gallons of hand sanitizer, 90 smaller bottles of hand sanitizer, 23 gallons of surface cleaner, 47 smaller bottles of surface cleaner, 900 microfiber towels to wipe down surfaces and some sneeze guards.
In addition, the Bartholomew County Clerk’s office has ordered 24,000 wooden queue tips from Amazon for voters to use to make their selections on the county’s electronic voting machines without having to physically touch the buttons on the machines, Phelps said.
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Local election officials said they will not have enough gloves or masks to distribute any to the public, Phelps said.
“We just encourage folks, if you’re comfortable wearing a mask, please wear a mask to the polls. That’s the recommendation,” he said. “…We have spent several hours planning and preparing for this new normal in this primary, and so I can tell you that I think we have a really good handle (on it).”
Besides the personal protective equipment, poll workers and election staff plan to place floor markings at vote centers to help ensure voters stay 6 feet away from each other as often as possible, Phelps said.
On Thursday, the Bartholomew County Election Board said the Bartholomew County Courthouse will no longer be an in-person early voting location after local judges and the Bartholomew County commissioners expressed concerns about people congregating in the building, Phelps said.
Instead, Donner Center will be the only early voting location, and will be open for early voting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from May 26 to May 30, and 8 a.m. to noon on June 1.
Also on Thursday, the election board reduced the number of in-person voting sites on election day after concerns about the spread of COVID-19 led to nearly half of poll workers dropping out.
The voting locations for the primary include:
Flintwood Wesleyan Church, 5300 25th St.
Donner Center, 739 22nd St.
Terrace Lake Church, 4260 W. County Road 200S
Elizabethtown Fire Station, 10203 E. Legal Tender, Elizabethtown
Ogilville United Methodist Church, 11910 S. State Road 58
Hope Moravian Church, 202 Main St., Hope
German Township Fire Station, 9428 Main St., Taylorsville
St. Johns Masonic Lodge, 4131 Rocky Ford Road
“We’re hoping this is final. We don’t want to make any more changes,” Phelps said. “Obviously, it’s been very fluid and things keep changing, but we’re confident that we have enough (poll workers) for these eight locations.”
