Johnson County Clerk Trena McLaughlin, left, listens to Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales as he talks about an election grant the county received Tuesday in Franklin.
Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
Indiana’s Secretary of State stopped by the Johnson County Courthouse to “deliver” a $25,000 grant for election improvements Tuesday.
Johnson County is one of more than 60 Indiana counties receiving federal grant dollars through the Help America Vote Act, with funds designated for election improvement and security efforts. Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales reviewed and approved local election improvement sub-grant proposals valued at about $2 million, according to his office.
Since the beginning of January, Morales has been stopping by each county that has received the grant to present them with a large oversized check for it. He’s visited more than 40 counties since the tour began, including neighboring Bartholomew County.
Tuesday was Johnson County’s turn. Before the presentation, Morales met with Clerk Trena McLaughlin, her staff and the Johnson County Election Board to discuss the grant and the upcoming elections.
Morales emphasized he wanted to be available to local officials, including county clerks. He believes in local control because local officials know what’s best for their county, and what tools and resources they need, he said.
The secretary of state’s office then came up with the grant opportunity, notifying all 92 Indiana counties of their chance to receive funding ahead of the 2024 elections. This was because officials are expecting a “massive turnout,” Morales said.
“We need to be ready because we want to sign up as many eligible Hoosiers to vote,” he said.
The federal funds could’ve been used in a variety of ways, such as for advertising, but the best use of the funds is to give it to counties, Morales said.
“I truly believe that the stronger the counties are, the stronger our state will be,” he said. “The stronger Johnson County will be, the stronger our state will be.”
With the $25,00 grant, Johnson County will purchase new security cameras for its vote centers. For several years, the county has used cameras to monitor vote centers 24/7 to ensure they are secure, McLaughlin said.
Voter privacy will still be maintained with the new cameras, and they will not be pointed at voting machines. The cameras provide an overarching view of the centers, she said.
The new cameras will also help keep down lines at vote centers. Officials will be able to look and see if a voting center has a lot of people waiting in line to vote. If a center does, then they could let the election inspector know they can direct voters to a vote center that has fewer people, McLaughlin said.
Other purchases planned by officials include a new copier, a new scanner for letters they send out to voters, absentee ballot envelopes and new security bags for election equipment. These bags will make it easier for poll workers and poll inspectors to move equipment to and from vote centers, she said.
McLaughlin is excited the county was chosen as a grant recipient.
“Anything that we can do to save the taxpayers of Johnson County money. … It’s not going to be county funds that are being used,” she said. “It’s federal funds that were awarded, so that saves taxpayers money that we would have to go before council to get appropriations for those items.”
