County could change voting

GENEVA — Adams County may be consolidating voting locations and switching to electronic poll books in 2016.
The changes would make elections more efficient and less costly, county clerk Jim Voglewede and county council member Tony Mellenkamp told Geneva Town Council at its meeting Tuesday night.
With an electronic poll book, there’s no flipping through pages of voters. Instead, Voglewede explained, the iPads bring up a voter’s information once their driver’s license has been scanned. The citizen signs the screen, receives a slip of paper that prints out and takes that to a voting machine.
That takes about 30 seconds, Voglewede said.
Adams County Council and the county commissioners like the idea, Voglewede said, so a committee was formed to study it further. The county election board would have to approve any changes to voting.
The committee would also like to expand early voting, which previously has only been available in Decatur. With electronic poll books, though, any citizen can vote anywhere in the county.
If a voter signs a paper poll book, poll workers at other locations wouldn’t know. But the electronic system updates every few minutes, so if a voter showed up somewhere else and scanned their license, the iPad would show they had already voted.
The county could maintain early voting at the courthouse in Decatur, Voglewede said, but also have early opportunities at locations throughout Adams County. In 2012, there were 3,111 early voters.
“We would just come to the people, try to get them the opportunity to vote early,” Voglewede said.
With more early voting, the county would have fewer polling places on Election Day. There are 15 in the current system.
The committee is considering having a few Decatur locations along with one in Monroe, one or two in Berne and one in Geneva, Voglewede said. This could reduce the number of poll workers from 83 to 35.
“Nowadays it is getting harder to find workers,” Voglewede said, adding that it could be a struggle to find 83 workers for the primary election.
The county would save $5,100 in poll worker wages if those numbers hold.
Council member Agnes Schoch wondered whether voters would have to drive farther if 10 polling locations are closed.
Some would, Voglewede said, but others will be able to go to a location that they lived close to all along, but couldn’t vote at because it wasn’t their precinct. And if someone finds it more convenient to vote near where they work or have an errand, they can.
Mellenkamp showed council a map of five potential voting centers, explaining 88 percent of registered voters live within 5 miles of one of them.
Clerk-treasurer Jane Kaverman said her concern is making voters aware of changes. Other counties have put up signs on unused former precincts and distributed flyers through utility bills and churches, Voglewede said.
In other business, council members Dick Clutter, Jim Timmons and Schoch:
•Learned the Geneva Fire Department had 51 first responder runs in 2015, along with 37 runs for fires, water rescues and other non-medical situations.
•Heard from Kaverman the town underspent from its general fund by $23,770 in 2015 and from the motor vehicle and highway fund by $36,730. Council approved additional appropriations in those amounts for the 2016 funds.