Representatives of Valparaiso University, citing Indiana’s voting participation of just 14.6% for 18- to 29-year-olds, asked the Porter County Election Board Thursday afternoon to add the campus as a new vote center.
“How did we get to the basement?” asked Elizabeth Gingerich, chair of Valpo Votes, a group of VU faculty and staff advocating civic engagement.
Porter County Clerk Jessica Bailey said in a phone call before the meeting that it’s too late to add a vote center for this year’s general election. The Elections & Registration Office plans to use the same number of vote centers – 44 – as in the primary. The acquisition, allocation and programming of voting machines is done well in advance of the May primary.
She also added that the Election Board held three or four town hall-style meetings in 2021 and 2022 before changing from a precinct to a vote center system. “So at any point in time any one of these organizations could have come in,” she said of groups such as Valpo Votes, which did not request a vote center at the time.
Gingerich said the vote center closest to campus is at the Hampton Inn on Sturdy Road. “A lot of students are reluctant to leave campus,” she said. “It’s not going to happen. It makes sense to put a polling place on a campus where students live.”
She named schools such as Indiana University-Indianapolis, Butler University and the Fort Wayne campus of Ivy Tech as examples of other campuses in the state that offer polling places and said VU can offer sufficient parking. Walks from parking lots to many buildings are significant, however.
Gingerich cited recent elections in France and Brazil thrown together in six weeks or less. “It can be done if people want it to be done,” Gingerich said. “We all know that the vote is the bedrock of our democracy.”
She also said she had met with Bailey in May. Election board proxy Jennifer Krug, who was sitting in for member Jeff Chidester, asked Gingerich to clarify if that was May of this year or 2023. Gingerich said it was this year.
Bailey said the election board will reevaluate the vote center plan in 2025 for the 2026 midterms. “That has always been the plan when we went to vote centers,” she said.
In other business, the election board approved the emergency transfer of two vote centers in northern Porter County to other locations. Because of construction at Chesterton Town Hall, that vote center has been moved to the Duneland YMCA Healthy Living Campus, 651 W. Morgan Ave. Voters should enter Door 11, the pool entrance.
Because of unexpected black mold remediation, the Burns Harbor Town Hall vote center has been moved next door to the Burns Harbor Fire Station, 308 Navajo Trail.
A public test of election machines takes place at 8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, in the basement of 157 Franklin St. Voter registration ends on Monday, Oct. 7, and early voting begins on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.