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July 1, 2009

Vigo dropping to one satellite voting site

By Howard Greninger

TERRE HAUTE — Just as multiple satellite voting sites were becoming popular with Vigo County voters, those sites will be gone, replaced with just one early voting location at the Vigo County Annex in next year’s election.

The sites were cut as the Vigo County Election Board had to trim 15 percent from its 2010 proposed budget, based on budget requirements from the Vigo County Council. The budget was submitted to the council on Tuesday.

“Now with the economy of the nation, the state and our county, we are having to face some hard times and give up some things that we want very much, but can no longer afford,” Vigo County Clerk Patricia Mansard said Wednesday.

“The satellites, though no one wants them more than I do, are just not feasible,” Mansard said.

Mansard said it costs about $100,000 to operate four sites that included The Meadows shopping center, Plaza North shopping center, Southland Shopping Plaza and a site on the campus of Indiana State University.

First used in 2006, there were 3,621 voters who cast an absentee ballot in the general election at three satellite sites. That number grew more than four times by the general election in 2008, when 14,931 voters cast absentee ballots at four satellite sites, including a new location on ISU’s campus.

The campus site had 1,655 absentee ballots cast in the 2008 general election.

Statewide, absentee voting, including election satellite sites, was the largest in state history in the 2008 general election, said Jim Gavin, spokesman for the Indiana Secretary of State’s office.

“We had 24 percent of Indiana voters cast an absentee ballot,” whether in satellite centers, by voting an absentee ballot via mail or before a confined voting board, Gavin said.

“A record 662,443 absentee ballots were cast [last year] versus the previous record of 262,500, which was 10 percent of the vote in 2004 [during the last presidential election],” Gavin said.

Bionca Gambill, past president and member of the League of Women Voters of Vigo County, said other options should have been considered instead of cutting the satellite sites.

“I think this is an absolute travesty,” Gambill said.

“We live in a society that wants things flexible and easily accessible that fits into their time frames and daily activities,” Gambill said. “I think the avenue should have been explored to perhaps decrease it to a two-week period rather than 30 days for the satellite sites. That would cut the cost in half.”

Gambill said college students typically wait until the last minute to cast a ballot.

“We want to engage the younger generation in this voting process, along with the general population,” Gambill said. “Satellite voting is a method of getting people involved in a process that we were always struggling to find the answer for, ‘why we had such a lower voter turnout,’ and then when we find something effective, we are doing away with it because of insufficient amount of funds.”

Mansard said the Election Board struggled to meet budgetary constraints and is “trying to keep things functioning in these very unusual times.”

The county, by law, must provide an in-person voting site 30 days prior to a primary or general election. That site next year will be at the Vigo County Annex, at First and Oak streets in Terre Haute.

“We are going to try to give some additional hours to try to give back some convenience. We will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., which we found are the most hours that people could take advantage of to vote. They didn’t come in great numbers before 10 a.m.,” Mansard said.

“I am not giving up on having satellites and if and when we can afford to have one or more satellite sites, we want to,” Mansard said. “Everyone on the Election Board is in favor of giving that additional convenience.

“We are in the first county in the state of Indiana to offer satellite voting. I think it helps our democracy to work better by getting more people involved,” the clerk said.

Along with cuts in satellite sites, the board was able to negotiate a lower-cost contract for election services.

The election board approved a three-year agreement with Election Systems and Software Inc. (ES&S;), the nation’s largest manufacturer of voting machines. Vigo County commissioners must next approve and sign the agreement. Under the agreement, the county will pay $230,946 in 2010; $214,022 in 2014; and $260,511 in 2012, the next U.S. presidential election.

“We had a target budget of $686,016, but the board was able to come $61,398 less that its budget requirement at $624,618 through diligent negotiations with our election equipment and services provider,” Mansard said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

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