Vote Centers Draw Positive Reaction
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — Jennifer Whitaker had nothing but good things to say about Kosciusko County’s use of vote centers on Tuesday, May 3.
“This is awesome,” said Whitaker, who was serving as poll inspector at the center at the Shrine Building at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds in Warsaw.
Tuesday’s primary election marked the first time the county had used the center system, which allows registered voters of Kosciusko Count to cast their ballots at any of the designated locations throughout the county instead of having to visit the one for their precinct.
At another one of the county’s 21 vote centers, First Christian Church in Warsaw, poll inspector Lois Bishop cited the convenience of the system.
“It’s actually a lot easier for voters, so they’re a lot happier because we don’t have to say, ‘Sorry, we can’t accept you,’ or ‘Yeah, you’re supposed to be here. Let’s fill out this form,’ that kind of thing,” she said.
Poll inspector at Center Lake Pavilion in Warsaw Marta Dunwell-Klotz noted the vote center location had some people from Syracuse stop by.
“They had something else to do down here,” she said of why the voters came to the pavilion.
New Life Christian Church and World Outreach of Warsaw’s poll inspector Patti Yarian noted some voters had come from outside the Warsaw-Winona Lake area to that vote center location.
“I’m assuming because they work close by,” she said of why she believed the voters picked that site.
Turnout
As of around 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, the vote center at Christ’s Covenant Church in Winona Lake had seen 440 voters.
“It’s been pretty steady,” said poll inspector Kathy Keirn.
Dunwell-Klotz said Center Lake Pavilion had 280 people by 11:30 a.m.
Around 11:45 a.m. the Shrine Building had seen 187 voters, said Whitaker.
“We just saw an uptick of voters about lunch hour, but before that … somebody was always in voting,” she said. “I think the most that we’ve had in line here probably at one time was maybe 10 individuals waiting to vote.”
A little before 1 p.m., there had been 175 voters at New Life. First Christian had about 200 voters as of 11 a.m.