With minutes to go before the polls officially opened for early voting Monday morning, two local residents waited their turn to make their voices heard.
Scott Pennington had come early to the basement of the Johnson County courthouse to avoid any long lines to cast his ballot. The Greenwood resident was focused on the contested city council races, and would have his chance as the first voter in this year’s general election.
“I want to make sure Greenwood gets represented, to make sure the people get represented, and our opinions are heard,” he said.
With contested municipal races set throughout Johnson County, a handful of voters joined Pennington Monday for the first day of early voting. Though election officials did not expect a large turnout for early voting, or the Nov. 7 election in general, they were prepared for anyone who wanted to cast their ballots before Election Day.
“I feel like it’s your civic duty, it’s your right, to vote,” said Trena McLaughlin, Johnson County clerk. “Every candidate needs to have those voters show their support, regardless of which party.”
November’s general election features seats are up for grabs in Franklin, Greenwood, Whiteland, New Whiteland, Edinburgh, Bargersville, Trafalgar and Prince’s Lakes. These include positions such as mayor, city and town council, clerk-treasurer, city judge and city clerk.
Contested races include Greenwood City Council Districts 3 and 4, along with at-large; and at-large town council seats for Bargersville, Edinburgh, Prince’s Lakes and Whiteland.
John Quinn and his wife, Rita, had come to cast their votes in the Franklin seats, even though none were contested. With a long family history of military service, Quinn felt that fulfilling the civic duty of voting was essential to honor those who died for it.
“It’s my responsibility as a citizen to vote,” he said. “My father basically gave his life for it. My grandfather was in World War I and fought for it.”
There are no federal, state or county seats in contention, so voters must reside within their city or town limits in order to cast a vote in this election.
That quirk had an impact right away on Monday morning. The first voter in line lived in an unincorporated part of White River Township, which meant she had no ballot to vote on.
But poll workers were prepared, apologetically explaining the situation. It was one of the scenarios they had trained for leading up to early voting.
A majority of preparation leading up to early voting was learning to use the modified voting machines, which are now placed in new, larger cases which contain the machines and the verified paper audit trail systems, or VVPATs. The change is designed to make it simpler for poll workers to assemble them at voting centers, McLaughlin said.
“We’ve been working on training the poll workers on how those new cases are working. The machine and VVPAT used to be in two separate cases. Now, they’re all in one,” she said. “Before, it was a lot more work for the poll workers, but this makes is so much easier.”
Municipal elections such as this one traditionally have lower voter turnout, so only 110 poll workers were needed this fall. During the 2019 municipal election, only 4,089 people voted, according to the clerk’s office.
“It’s a lot less than in other elections, but we’re fully staffed, and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, have been able to fill all spots with no problem,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve even had people calling wanting to work, so we’ve been telling them to come back next year; we’ll need them.”
One voter Monday morning raised a question about the straight ticket options available on the ballot. While voters could choose straight ticket for Republican candidates, the same was not true for Democrats or Libertarians.
The reason for the omission is that there are only Democratic and Libertarian candidates for Greenwood city council at-large, an office that is not covered by a straight party vote, according to Crystal Siegfred with Johnson County Voter Registration.
”If there had been candidates for mayor, clerk-treasurer or city council for a specific district for example, there would have been the option for a straight party vote for those parties,” Siegfred said in an email.
Early voting for the November municipal election will run until Nov. 6. The courthouse will be open to voters weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Nov. 3, Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Nov. 4 and Nov. 6 from 8:30 a.m. until noon.
Voting will also take place at several other locations around the county starting next weekend.
The White River Public Library, Greenwood Public Library, Trafalgar Public Library and John R. Drybread Community Center in Edinburgh will open as weekend early voting sites on Oct. 28 and Nov. 4. They will also be open for early voting from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3.
Three retirement communities — Greenwood Village South Retirement Community, Otterbein SeniorLife Community and Compass Park — will also be early voting sites. They will be open one day each on Oct. 30, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, respectively.
Voters must bring their Indiana or U.S. government-issued photo identification, listing their name that matches the one listed on the voter registration record, and also has a valid expiration date, according to the clerks office. The most common identifications used are Indiana driver’s licenses, U.S. passports, military IDs and Indiana photo ID cards.
EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS
Johnson County Courthouse, 5 E. Jefferson St., Franklin
- 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30-Nov. 3
- 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 28 and Nov. 4
- 8:30 a.m. to noon Nov. 6
White River Public Library, 1664 Library Blvd., Greenwood
- 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 28 and Nov. 4
- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 1-3
Greenwood Public Library (East door), 310 S. Meridian St., Greenwood
- 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 28 and Nov. 4
- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 1-3
Trafalgar Public Library, 424 S. Tower St., Trafalgar
- 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 28 and Nov. 4
- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 1-3
John R. Drybread Community Center, 100 E. Main Cross St., Edinburgh
- 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 28 and Nov. 4
- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 1-3
Greenwood Village South Retirement Community, 295 Village Lane, Greenwood
- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 30
Otterbein SeniorLife Community, 1070 W. Jefferson St., Franklin
- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 31
Compass Park/Indiana Masonic Home (Events Hall), 690 State St., Franklin
- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 1
Source: Johnson County Voter Registration
