The Lake County Board of Elections and Registration unanimously approved a motion Tuesday to allow office leadership to fill travel board members and counters with Democrats if Republican leadership doesn’t provide a list of people to fill those positions.
Under Indiana law, a county election board has to notify party chairmen that they have to appoint members to the absentee voter boards, teams of absentee ballot counters, and teams of couriers no later than 50 days before the election day. County party chairs also have to make written recommendations for the appointments to the county election board no later than 46 days before election day.
As of Tuesday, Republican Chairman Randy Niemeyer hadn’t submitted the necessary appointments, board chairman Kevin Smith said. Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Director Michelle Fajman said she requested 25 Republican travel board members, but only three came to a recent training.
If Republicans could provide five more travel board members, Fajman said she believes the office will get by.
Niemeyer told the Post-Tribune that the Republican Party has been focused on improving its roster of election workers and those who administer the travel board.
“We’re always looking to add to our election worker list,” Niemeyer said. “We’ve been working every day to fill the travel board spots.”
Smith said the purpose of the board’s motion is to ensure that the GOP creates a list of Republican travel board members. If not, then the board’s motion will allow office leadership to fill the positions with Democrats, he said.
Fajman, the highest-ranking Democrat in the office, said if the Republicans don’t provide a list of travel board members or counters then she’d talk with the assistant, who is the highest-ranking Republican in the office, to see if a Republican is available. If not, Fajman said she would select trained workers to fill those positions.
Lake County Board of Elections and Registration assistant director Jessica Messler said the Lake County Republican Party “did make a good faith effort to try to find poll workers” but ultimately it’s up to the office staff to find counters, early voting workers, and travel board members.
“The staff inside the office is supposed to find that, that has always been precedent. Up until a certain date, the Republican chairman and the Democrat chairman, they can find the poll workers for themselves and get them certified. We’re at the point now where this is the office staff that needs to find this,” Messler said.
Messler said she spoke with former Lake County Board of Elections and Registration assistant director LeAnn Angerman who told her that if there’s a situation where the travel board has to go to a large nursing home, an additional Republican staff worker could assist.
“We were doing it that way to where if an emergency situation came up or if a large travel board situation was coming up we would send one or two office staff members for that two hours that it would take instead of hiring an entirely different person,” Messler said.
Messler said Republican office workers have been handling the travel board work. Smith said the travel board work will increase as election day approaches on May 5.
Fajman said the office’s past practice has been to notify party chairmen that it is their responsibility to find early voting poll workers, travel board members, and counters.
“That is not the office staff’s responsibility. We should not be doing it until that 46 days has hit,” Fajman said. “I don’t think we should be cutting our staff short in the office when we have additional responsibilities.”
Smith said he wants to ensure that people have the right to vote, and if a few more people have to be hired for a few hours of work to get it done, then it is worth the cost.
“I want to make sure that travel board applicants, specifically, that we have enough teams going out. If it costs $20 bucks an hour or $11 bucks an hour, I think that’s a small price to pay to make sure that folks that are in nursing homes, who need travel boards, are able to vote,” Smith said.
Smith said he’d like to see bipartisan travel boards, but if there comes a point where there aren’t enough travel boards set up because there aren’t enough Republicans signed up then “we want to make sure that a travel board goes out.”
“We’re concerned there’s not enough participation,” Smith said.
Republican board member Charlene Foss-Eggemann said if the Republicans in the office feel they have enough staff to handle the day-to-day operations of the office and the travel board work then they should be able to do that.
“When you’re in a dire situation, you can cut it down to the bone a little bit more. I think that Jesica should be able to make that judgment call in managing her staff,” Foss-Eggemann said. “I would just ask for grace that we can have a Republican whenever possible, even if it is from the staff.”
Lake County Clerk Michael Brown said the preference would be to have bipartisan travel boards, but if needed, Democrats will fill the travel boards.
Messler reiterated that Republican staff members have been handling the travel board work and have been following past practices. Brown said he’s been a member of the board in different capacities since 2010, so he knows the current travel board numbers are low.
“I know these numbers are not right, and they need to be up. You need to do a better job, or else this board is going to do what it has to do,” Brown said.
A handful of people addressed the election board about their action on the travel board.
Steven Mays, the president of the Gary branch of the NAACP, said he appreciated the board’s vote because the organization was concerned about voter suppression, particularly for those who live in nursing homes or assisted living facilities.
“We’re happy that this group took the lead and solved the problem,” Mays said.
Will Miller, a NAACP member and Gary Republican Party Chairman, said fairness in elections is important.
“Give us a little grace. But, there is a responsibility that we do see. We will definitely be productive,” Miller said. “Even when it’s tough, we need to make sure that it’s fair. That’s why I appreciate the (board’s) approach.”
The board also voted unanimously to dismiss two election complaints.
Stephen Jarzombek filed an election complaint against St. John Sanitary Board member Kyle Kil for not updating his voter registration after moving from Schererville to St. John and casting a ballot in the 2024 general election and 2025 special elections.
Kil testified before the board that it was “an oversight” to vote under his previous address and, therefore, his old precinct. Kil said he has since updated his voter registration.
Michaela Spangenburg filed an election complaint against Lucinda Murphy for having signs that stated they were paid for by “the Committee to Elect Cindy Murphy,” but a statement of organization hadn’t been filed in that name.
Murphy testified that she created the Committee to Elect Cindy Murphy in 2004 when she first ran for the Hammond School Board. In each election cycle, Murphy said the committee spent less than $500 on signs, which meant she didn’t have to fill out a campaign finance report.
