Kosciusko County Election Board members Randy Girod (L) and Bill Morton listen during a board meeting Wednesday in Warsaw. InkFreeNews photo by Dan Spalding.

By Dan Spalding
InkFreeNews

WARSAW – Kosciusko County election officials are bracing for what will likely be a historic level of mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election.

In the primary, Kosciusko County received more mail-in ballots than ever before with 3,553, which was more than a third of the 8,917 ballots tallied.

Officials hope to replicate the smooth operations seen in the primary, which was moved to June because of the pandemic and relied on fewer polling places than normal.

The chief concern right now, though, is being able to promptly process all of the mail-in ballots by the end of election night.

In the primary, election workers began counting mail-in ballots at 6 a.m. and finished the job by early afternoon.

County Clerk Ann Torpy, who serves on the election board, said she’s advising both political parties that they will need eight to 12 workers to help oversee the processing of mail-in ballots to ensure the work is completed that day.

Torpy said they’re anticipating more mail-in ballots than ever before and that there could easily be twice – possilby far  more – as what was seen in the primary.

While President Donald Trump continues to cast concern about mail-in ballots, saying it can lead to widespread voter fraud, local election officials are supporting the practice and urging people to use that method if possible because of concerns over the continuing pandemic.

Election Board members Bill Morton and Randy Girod both voiced support for making voting as easy as possible.

“We’ve got to encourage mail-in voting whenever possible,” Girod said.

The biggest problem in the past, they said, has been with missing signatures on the ballot. In those cases, officials will alert the voter and give them a chance to sign the ballot.

The local election board is also waiting for a final decision from the State Election Commission on whether absentee voting will be expanded to allow anyone to use it without specifying one of a handful of reasons normally permitted.

If that provision is expanded, it could lead to even more people choosing to use mail-in ballots.

But the rules for reasons to use an absentee ballot are loose enough that voters can seek one if they don’t think they’ll be available to vote in person on Election Day. Chief Deputy Clerk Mellissa Boggs also noted that if somebody is too worried about voting in person, they could apply for an absentee ballot.

“I feel like there are enough reasons on the application that it qualifies for about anybody,” Boggs said.

Torpy said the county was unaware of any voter fraud related to mail-in ballots in the primary or at any other time in the past two decades that she’s been involved in elections.

The local election board is also waiting for a final decision from the State Election Commission on whether absentee voting will be expanded to allow anyone to use it without specifying one of a handful of reasons normally permitted.

If that provision is expanded, it could lead to even more people choosing to use mail-in ballots.

The state election commission is expected to meet soon and consider the option.

The board also had an extensive talk with a representative of MicroVote, the company that provides voting machines and software to the county for elections. MircroVote provides election support to Kosciusko and 54 other counties in Indiana.

The county election board will meet again at 9 a.m. Sept. 9.

Chief Deputy Clerk Melissa Boggs (L) and County Clerk Ann Torpy listen during the election board meeting Wednesday. InkFreeNews photo by Dan Spalding.