Ready, set, vote

<p><strong>I</strong>t is the first Election Day since Nov. 6, when a massive system failure left local voters waiting in lines for hours.</p><p>Some didn’t get to vote at all. Outdated equipment coupled with insufficient electronic storage failed to keep up with what Johnson County officials have since called an unexpected voter turnout.</p><p>Now, all eyes are on Johnson County.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>And the voters’ eyes are on its new equipment.</p><p><p><strong>What is at stake?</strong></p><p>Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at vote centers across the county.</p><p>Eighteen vote centers are open, up from 13 during the last municipal election. Having that many vote centers for a traditionally small election is a precaution, Johnson County Clerk Trena McLaughlin said.</p><p>Every city and town except New Whiteland has at least one primary race, and voters in Union, Franklin and Needham townships are asked to head to the polls to vote on a Franklin Community Schools referendum, even though they wouldn’t normally vote during a municipal election.</p><p>Seventy candidates are contested in the spring primary — albeit no Democrat ballots — with a dozen or more candidates on some tickets, including Trafalgar Town Council.</p><p>More than two dozen candidates are running for Greenwood City Council, which has nine seats available, and two-term mayor Mark Myers also faces a challenge. His Republican opponent, Dale Marmaduke, is running for mayor because he is disappointed in the city’s direction. For four years, he has been an outspoken voice at public meetings. He is a long-time Greenwood resident who wants to return the rapidly changing city to its former glory in a fight for free enterprise.</p><p>A total of 10 Democrats will appear on fall ballots unless the party decides to slate candidates for certain seats. Most of the current candidates are also in Greenwood. Independents have until July 1 to file paperwork to be on the ballot. So far, none have.</p><p><p><strong>Is low voter turnout still a tradition?</strong></p><p>During the last election, early voting had reached its highest ever, and in the days leading up to the election, officials predicted the exact turnout — 50 percent.</p><p>That was certainly high for a midterm election. Turnout during this year’s municipal primary is nowhere near that. In fact, despite more, highly contested races including Republican bids for mayor of the county’s largest city, turnout isn’t even what it was during the last municipal primary in 2015.</p><p>When the Johnson County courthouse closed to early voting at noon on Monday, exactly 2,700 voters had cast ballots — a 2.6 percent turnout heading into Election Day.</p><p>Johnson County is notorious for low voter turnout, especially during city and town elections. In both the 2015 primary and general elections, fewer than 10 percent of registered voters cast ballots, making it one of the worst in the state. Johnson County had the fifth lowest voter turnout of Indiana’s 91 counties in the 2015 municipal election.</p><p><p><strong>Real test is today</strong></p><p>In the few short months following the November 2018 election, officials, including a newly elected clerk, had to navigate next steps after the Secretary of State’s Office launched an investigation into Election Systems and Software, and discovered that the county’s former vendor recommended a workaround on Election Day that violated state law. The county says it never used that workaround, but evidence provided in the Secretary of State’s preliminary report suggests otherwise.</p><p>In February, the county’s Election Board and Board of Commissioners agreed to fire Election Systems and Software and hire another vendor, but with weeks to go before the election, chose to rent new equipment this year rather than buy it outright, which is expected to cost the taxpayers upwards of $1 million, officials have said. They will have to make that move before next year’s presidential election.</p><p>But it isn’t for sure whether they will go with Indianapolis-based MicroVote, which provided equipment and services for this year’s elections at a low cost.</p><p>This year’s elections are serving as a test for that vendor to see how well the system works, election officials have said. But the real test will come next year, when even more voters than last year are expected to turn out to cast their vote for president.</p><p>So far, so good, McLaughlin said last week of the new equipment. They haven’t had any issues with the new voting machines or electronic pollbooks, and they don’t expect any today, she said.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="We’ve got you covered" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Get the latest vote totals and see what is happening at vote centers all day today on the Daily Journal’s website at dailyjournal.net.</p><p>Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="Tell us your story" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Let us know how voting went for you. Long line? Didn’t have the correct ID? Equipment failure?</p><p>Call us at 317-736-2770 or email us at <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]