Porter County voters will have new equipment to use beginning with early voting next month.
The equipment, replacing machines damaged in last year’s flooding at the voter registration office, was delivered March 4, County Clerk Jessica Bailey said. Unloading it all was “quite a feat,” involving staff from the facilities department and clerk’s office, as well as the voter registration office.
Unloading the five semis took about 5.5 hours, including taking the machines off the pallets and putting them in the equipment room.
“We almost beat the rain,” Bailey told the Election Board on Thursday, getting the last load inside just as the rain started.
The hydraulics broke on the last load, complicating the unloading. “It was crazy,” Bailey said.
“We have shiny new stuff,” board President Paul Rauch commented.
The electronic poll books were unaffected by the flood and didn’t need to be replaced.
A public test of the new equipment is scheduled for April 6.
The board also approved locations for early voting. Early voting, from April 7 to May 4, ends at noon May 4.
The votemobile will be at the Luke Oil station at 6259 Melton Road in Portage from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 7, 14 and 21; at Kouts Public Library from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 9, 16 and 23; at South Haven Public Library from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 25; at Ogden Dunes Town Hall from 4 pm. to 7 p.m. April 28; at Jamestown Apartments in Valparaiso, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 30; and at Chesterton European Market, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 2.
Other early voting locations include Chesterton Town Hall, Hebron Community Center, the NIRPC building in Portage, North County Complex in Portage, Porter County Administration Building in Valparaiso, Union Township Fire Station No. 2 at 267 N. 600W, and Valparaiso Fire Training Center, 355 Evans Ave. Hours for all those locations are 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays April 25 and May 2.
The schedule for early voting in the general election will be different, Bailey said.
The board also heard appeals from candidates subject to fines for delinquent campaign finance reports. Fines increase each day a report is late. For first offenders, the fine is typically halved.
Some of the cases were conundrums for the board.
Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann said he didn’t receive letters about a defective report until one indicating a third notice arrived. He didn’t find out about the report until a voter registration staffer mentioned it during a casual conversation, he said. Germann took action that day to address it.
“I’m happy to accept Mr. Germann’s word that he didn’t receive his letter,” board member JC Colter said, based on his mailed NIPSCO payment taking 15 days to get to NIPSCO in Merrillville.
The election office not only sends letters by U.S. Postal Service but also sends emails to the address on file, if the candidate or committee treasurer provides one. Germann didn’t know how to access the email on the account provided with the report, he said.
It’s up to the candidates or treasurers to provide updated email addresses, Director Sundae Schoon said.
Germann’s report was filed on time but flagged as defective and not corrected in time because he didn’t receive any of the notices, he said. “We left out one word. We left out the occupation of the donor.”
Germann offered to pay $50, half the fine, to settle the issue when the board had trouble deciding what to do.
Fines were waived for Jeremy and Nina Rivas, who didn’t file reports because they didn’t receive donations, didn’t spend any money and weren’t charged fees on the bank accounts.
Jeremy received an email notice, but when he responded, the email went to an automated account that isn’t monitored. Emails sent through that system now instruct recipients not to reply to that address and instead use the one indicated to respond to election officials.
“He did what they asked him to do,” board member Jeff Chidester said, but sent it to the wrong address. “I’m not going to fine him for that.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
