TERRE HAUTE — The current Vigo County clerk, who is running for re-election, says the office is running as efficiently as it can under the circumstances, while her challenger for the office says he has plenty of ideas for increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
The clerk develops, maintains and stores all court documentation for Circuit, Superior, and Juvenile courts. The clerk’s responsibilities include collection and disbursement of court costs, fines, judgments, restitutions and various other fees. The clerk also collects and disburses child support payments, issues marriage licenses and conducts all elections. The annual salary for the clerk is $43,155, with an additional $4,500 from the Election Board.
Patricia R. “Pat” Mansard, the Democrat incumbent, said the main issue in the clerk’s office is that the office is understaffed.
“We have a tremendous workload and we are having our staff reduced at the same time,” Mansard said during a recent interview. “We have lost three full-time employees because of the hiring freeze. We do the work of keeping the courts functioning … We are the financial officer of the courts. So that is a tremendous job. In addition to that, we have our child support and marriage licensing, a tremendous records problem, and then of course another full-time job of conducting the elections.”
Mansard added that the issue of efficiency is compounded by problems of staffing space and layout of the office.
“It’s not a matter of efficiency,” she said. “We’re as efficient as we can be. It’s just that we operate under very difficult circumstances; unlike many other clerk’s offices — because of tradition and because of layout of the space provided to the clerk’s office — we have people scattered all over the courthouse, and down at the juvenile center, over in City Hall.”
She added that records and voting equipment are spread around different offices, some of which need to be accessed daily.
“We are really fragmented,” she said.
Mansard said she has long-wished for a single office space for all the deputy clerks so that they all could work together, fill in for one another, and help one another.
“We have to have our clerks that work in the courts stationed in the individual court offices. That doesn’t permit that kind of working relationship,” she said.
When asked what she would like to see happen, Mansard said now that the courthouse renovation is complete, she doesn’t expect any change.
“I just have to work with the situation as it is,” she said. “The courts have very good space but the spaces we’ve been provided for election functioning are totally inadequate.”
Bill Treadway, who currently works in voter registration and serves as chairman of the Vigo County Republican Party, is the Republican nominee for clerk.
Treadway says two main issues for the clerk’s office are reducing costs and improving safety at polling sites.
“Number one, the cost of our elections is way out of control,” he said during a recent interview. “We’ll have to find ways to reduce costs because we’re going to have less tax revenue, and tax revenue will be decreased by the governor’s restructuring plan, property tax relief — which is a good thing — but also, apparently, we’re either going to be in an economic downturn or recession, so we’re going to have less money to spend.”
Treadway gave a few different suggestions for saving money in the clerk’s office.
First, he said, he is in favor of satellite voting and reducing the number of polling places.
“We don’t need as many polling places as we have,” he said. “We should start reducing those by eliminating … the schools [as polling places] to begin with.”
Treadway said a loophole in Indiana law allows registered sex offenders to vote at school polling places during school hours while children are present.
“Right now, a child predator can walk right in to any Vigo County public school on election day, and that needs to be changed,” he said.
Treadway admitted that the odds of “anything happening right there” are low, “but all it would have to be is just, they’d happen to get a glance and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got some xBox games to give away.’ It’s just too big a risk. The schoolkids are there, the schools are open, and you can have a child predator just walk right in.”
Treadway added that changing state legislation to reduce the number of polling places and opening voting centers that would accommodate several precincts would solve the problem of child predators voting in schools, and would save money.
Three counties currently are trying voting centers as a pilot program through the state Legislature.
Treadway said voting centers would be “sort of like super polling places. That, along with satellite voting, should accommodate everybody.”
He added that the cost-savings would come from a reduction in the necessary manpower as well as the rental costs associated with all the polling sites.
“It’s not a simple process of just doing it,” Treadway said. “You have to work with state legislators to get them to okay your plan, but my plan would be to reduce those number of polling places.”
He added that the rules about the number of polling places “were drawn up in horse-and-buggy days. It’s very outdated.”
Mansard said she has not decided yet whether she is in favor of voting centers.
“That’s not anything I have really spent the time investigating as yet, because we’re so busy doing what we have to do every day … Until [the Legislature passes a law about voting centers], that’s not anything that is possible,” she said.
She said she would have to “weigh all of the downsides.”
“The obvious thing is that precincts allow people, in many cases, easy walking distance to a polling site, whereas vote centers would be farther away and probably would have to have transportation to get there,” she said. “However, it might save us some money to have the vote centers, but we’d have to look and see if it would save money and if it would be worthwhile.”
Mansard added that there will be more information next year after results from the pilot counties become available.
Treadway said he wants to make the clerk’s office more efficient by improving record-keeping for circuit court judges.
“I think they would much prefer an electronic system that has a lot less paper,” Treadway said, “And that would save money with storage issues.
“I would love to work with the judges to get a better system, and really, if I’m elected, sit down with them on January 1 and ask what the clerk’s office can do for the circuit court judges to make that system work better,” he said.
Treadway said he would not criticize Mansard’s record in the clerk’s office, but “in general, any time you’re in a position for a long period of time, there’s a tendency to get very comfortable with a routine, maybe be kind of resistant to change, and that’s just sort of a general comment, that’s human nature,” he said.
Mansard, who has been in the clerk’s office for 20 years, 12 of those as clerk, the other eight years as deputy clerk, said she brings to the office extensive experience.
She said her strengths also include, “My devotion to good government and my work ethic.”
Treadway said, “I look forward to serving if elected clerk and I would have an open-door policy; anyone could always come in and talk to the clerk if they had an issue or problem or question.”
He added that he has a long history working with both Democrats and Republicans.
Deb Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.kelly@tribstar.com.
Candidate Bios
Bill Treadway
Age: 41
Education: Terre Haute North Vigo High School, 1985; B.S. from Indiana State University in geology, 1991; M.S. in history from ISU, 2006.
Experience: Republican board member on the Board of Voter Registration (2004-present); chairman of county Republican Party, 2005 to present; teaches history for Indiana Wesleyan University and ISU; land-use planner at the Area Planning Department
Family: Wife, Angela; three children.
Pat Mansard
Age: 70
Education: Wiley High School, 1956; attended Indiana State University.
Experience: 20 years in Vigo County government; worked for the National Council on Crime and Delinquency; spent several years as a full-time mother.
Family: Late husband, William; four children; 10 grandchildren.
Election 2008
October 12, 2008
Vigo County Clerk Election Preview
- Election 2008
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Vigo County election results
More than 44,000 ballots were cast Tuesday of the nearly 80,000 registered voters, giving Vigo County a 55.76 percent voter turnout. Voters who cast provisional ballots have until noon Nov. 14 to show proper identification in the clerk’s office. Members of the Election Board will certify the results by the end of Nov. 14.
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- House District 44: Former Greencastle major wins A former Greencastle mayor will head off to the Statehouse come January, and she said Tuesday night she’s ready to go.
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YOUTH VOTE: Sarah Scott students elect Obama, Daniels
Tribune-Star
Students and staff at Sarah Scott Middle School voted to make Barack Obama president and Mitch Daniels governor during a mock election Tuesday. - Vigo picks presidential winner again Vigo County voters chose Democrat Sen. Barack Obama as president, maintaining its status as a “bellwether” county, picking the winner in every presidential election since 1892 with only two exceptions.
- Harrison Township opts to keep assessor Voters in eight precincts in Harrison Township opted to retain a township assessor under a referendum vote on Tuesday’s election ballot. That’s was good news to Mick Love, who will retain his elected seat as Harrison Township assessor. The final tally on Public Question No. 1 was 6,587 for a “yes,” which would remove the office, to 9,506 for “no” which would retain the office.
- House District 46: Tincher pulls out win The race between Democrat incumbent Rep. Vern Tincher and Republican challenger Bob Heaton for the Indiana House District 46 seat went down to the wire Tuesday night, with Tincher pulling out a win.
- Republican Daniels wins 2nd term as Indiana governor Republican Mitch Daniels defeated former Democratic congresswoman Jill Long Thompson on Tuesday to win a second term as governor, but he may need a supply of olive branches to advance his agenda if Democrats retain control of the Indiana House.
- House District 45: Borders wins close race The Indiana House District 45 race between incumbent Republican Bruce Borders and Democrat Rick Marshall was too close to call for much of the evening Tuesday, with the final outcome apparent near midnight.
- House District 43: Kersey remains in seat Rep. Clyde Kersey, D-Terre Haute, will remain in the Indiana General Assembly for another two years, as the 12-year incumbent defeated Republican challenger Ryan Cummins for the House District 43 seat.
- Clay County's turnout one for record books Clay County’s voter turnout was one for the record books, officials said Tuesday evening.
- Parke County incumbents retain their seats Parke County incumbents retained their seats in Tuesday’s election. Republican County At-large Councilmen Dale Gerrish and John Pratt will be joined by fellow Republican J.B. Butler, a newcomer who received more votes than Gerrish and Pratt. The three GOP candidates won over the three Democrats in that race.
- Nearly 64 percent of registered Vermillion voters cast ballots Vermillion County voters turned out in big numbers Tuesday to hand victories to Democrats up and down the ballot. Nearly 64 percent of registered voters turned out in the mostly rural county, which includes the towns of Clinton and Newport.
- Sullivan County votes Repbulican in national election For the second time in its traditionally Democratic history, Sullivan County voted Republican in the national election. Overall, Democrats saw unexpected upsets, incumbent Republicans lost a few offices, and voter turnout here was exceptionally high, as expected.
- Indiana State students await impact of their votes Ashley Roce sat in the Cunningham Memorial Library eating pizza with her friends, waiting to see the impact of her first vote in a presidential election.
- Indiana transplants watch from east coast Indiana has done what couldn’t have been predicted in 2004: It has gone Blue — and by so doing, the Hoosier state has broken its 44-year tradition of being a Red state, and helped put a Democrat in the White House.
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Voter turnout in Clark County, Ill., highest it's ever been
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- Presidential election turnout down in Edgar County Despite an increase in registered voters for Tuesday’s election, turnout was lower than the last presidential election in Edgar County, Ill.
- Incumbents easily win school board seats Three Vigo County School Board incumbents readily won re-election Tuesday. In District 1, Mel Burks and Jackie Lower retained their seats, defeating Larry Faulkner. In unofficial results, Lower had 24,321 votes, Burks, 19,253, and Faulkner, 11,383.
- Democratic Commissioner Mason gets another four years Vigo County voters on Tuesday returned Democratic Commissioner Paul Mason for an additional four-year term as one of the county’s top executive officials.
- Rader wins Vigo judge Superior Court Divisioin 5 The winner of Vigo County judge for Superior Court Division 5 is Dr. Michael Rader. With 23,636 votes, or 56 percent, Rader defeated Republican challenger Dan Kelly, who earned 18,216 votes, or 44 percent. Totals are unofficial results from the Vigo County Election office.
- Allsup defeats Royer in Vigo Recorder race In a night that was friendly to Democrats, Nancy Allsup won the office of Vigo County Recorder, defeating Republican Bruce Royer. Allsup, with 26,486 votes, or 65 percent, celebrated her victory Tuesday night with friends and family at the Paradise Pavilion in West Terre Haute.
- Mansard wins another term as Vigo County clerk Democrat Patricia “Pat” Mansard has won another term as Vigo County clerk. Mansard, who has served as county clerk for 20 years, was busily working Tuesday night to finish up election results, but she took a minute to savor her win.
- FINAL: VIGO COUNTY ELECTION 2008 RESULTS Final election night results from Vigo County
- FINAL: VERMILLION COUNTY ELECTION RESULTS 2008 Election results from Vermillion County
- FINAL: CLAY COUNTY ELECTION 2008 RESULTS Election results from across Clay County
- FINAL: PARKE COUNTY ELECTION 2008 RESULTS Election results from Parke County
- FINAL: SULLIVAN COUNTY ELECTION RESULTS 2008 Results from Sullivan County
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NEW: Vigo County’s election record cited by Karl Rove
Karl Rove, the man credited with orchestrating President George W. Bush’s two successful campaigns for the presidency, reportedly singled out Vigo County as a place to watch tonight when election returns start coming in.
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