A Gary polling location acknowledged as hard to find and unpleasant will remain as is for the 2024 election.
The Lake County Election Board at its April 8 meeting voted 3-2 that voters in precinct G-5-4 will stay at the fire station at 6012 W. 26th Ave. The board initially approved a switch to the former polling site, Beacon Light Church, 3770 Burr St., contingent on the site meeting the approval of both the Democratic and Republican chairmen in the city, approval from the church board and clearance by inspectors that the site meets ADA and other requirements by April 9, the deadline for changes; but then called the April 8 special meeting to discuss the matter further.
Both sides of the issue agreed that the outcome is to increase voter turnout in a precinct that’s had drastically low turnout even for Lake County’s typically low numbers — 2.36% in 2019 and 3.38% in 2023, which showed an increase, however slight, Election Board member Mike Mellon noted — and board members agreed that the church is the more visible location. But Republican remonstrators claimed moving the polling place with a little less than a month before the primary could further disenfranchise voters and keep them from voting for Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I was contacted by Ms. (Carol Ann) Seaton that (the fire station) wasn’t handicapped-accessible, and it’s too far and an inconvenience,” Gary Republican Committee Chair John Collier, who uses a wheelchair, said. “My wife and I took a visit, and it wasn’t hard to find and it is ADA accessible.
“But (voters in G-5-4) do like Donald Trump, and I believe there will be an influx to keep him out of office. I believe (the Democrats) have another agenda, and if you’re like me, you don’t like deception.”
Bradley Hutchison, a resident of Gary’s Black Oak neighborhood, said he can see the fire department “from all over” and that the fire station is “set up real nice.” Hobart precinct committeewoman Barbara Koteles noted that there are already poll workers scheduled for the fire station and asked if there was an “accounting difference” in switching the locations.
“When people do this, it’s because the timing isn’t good,” she said.
Seaton thanked the board for acknowledging that voting increased in that precinct but insisted that when the Gary Democratic Precinct Organization signs up voters, they ask only if they want to register, not how they want to vote. Her argument, she said, is strictly about location.
“If you have GPS and put in the address, it doesn’t get you there; the address is different and will take you somewhere else, and when it rains, it floods,” Seaton said. “I don’t know of any other place that, if you’re going to a polling place, has a dead-end — not Schererville, not Dyer. The difference between Beacon Light and the fire station is that there’s a big sign right on Burr Street; we’re not talking about a place where we can’t see it.
“I was accused of ulterior motives — I’ll acknowledge it, because I have right here 35 voter registrations. I’m not looking at Democrat or Republican; I don’t want any place that’s a dead-end street.
Collier’s wife, Dionne, acknowledged Seaton’s claim that there can be standing water around the fire station, but “it’s not there all the time.” She asked that the board “keep it fair.”
“It looks like Gary is being wishy-washy,” she said. “(The Election Board is) trying to make voting easy; why are there traveling boards? Why are there absentee ballots?”
Election Board member and Lake County Clerk Mike Brown said he took some of the remonstrators’ comments of dishonest motives personally because the reason for the change is for people to vote.
“This turnout (in G-5-4) is ludicrous,” Brown said. “I think people need to stop framing this as Democrat-Republican. This is not a party issue, and I refuse to accept it any other way.”
Election Board member John Reed pointed out that Indiana code says any public building can’t refuse a polling place, but the church can. If a change were to be made after the election, he said the Election Board could draft up a contract with Beacon Light to ensure it stays there.
Mellon, meanwhile, acknowledged that Seaton had “a great point,” but prior to her complaint, no one complained about the site and even if the number was miniscule, the turnout there did increase.
“Less than 30 days is not the time to do this. It gives the optics of partisan behavior and would be a step back,” Mellon said.
Seaton said after the meeting she’ll take the issue up again after the November General election.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.