With less than six months until the presidential primary and high voter turnouts the last couple of years, county election officials have a long to-do list and a short amount of time to check everything off.
Election leaders have said for at least a year they expect a massive turnout during next year’s presidential elections, and that they are taking the necessary steps to prepare for it.
That includes making sure the county’s old equipment is properly disposed of and the new equipment is delivered in a timely manner, getting poll workers trained on it and making sure the county has enough poll workers and vote centers to accommodate a suspected high number of voters.
Voter turnout is on the rise. During the last presidential election, about 40 percent of the county’s registered voters cast ballots during the primary, and 63 percent voted in the general election. Election officials expect an even higher turnout next year due to unexpected turnouts during the last two general elections.
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This week, voter turnout was more than double what county election officials predicted. More than 16 percent of registered voters cast ballots, up from 9.7 percent during the last comparable election in 2015. And last year, 50 percent of voters cast ballots during the general election, and that number would have been higher had the election equipment worked properly. That’s compared to only 23 percent during the last midterm election in 2014.
Some of that has to do with the school referendums that were on the ballot during the last three elections, said Trena McLaughlin, county clerk.
Still, she expects next year’s turnout will be significant, and conversations about how to deal with that have already started, she said.
"People (this week) have said, ‘The election’s over, now you can breathe.’ Well no," McLaughlin said. "We have a huge election coming up."
Next year, voters will choose who will take top leadership positions in the state and country, including governor, president and U.S. House of Representatives, as well as some county seats, including all three commissioners and county council at-large members. They will make those decisions on all new equipment.
After years of debate and pushback, county officials agreed to buy all new voting equipment this year. Although they will use the same election vendor they rented from during this year’s municipal elections, voters will see some minor changes with next year’s equipment.
The county will spend about $1.5 million on services and equipment, including 320 voting machines. The Infinity Voting Machine with VVPAT — Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail — is the newest system MicroVote has to offer, and was certified by the state in July. The contract between the county and the company will be for four years.
The county and vendor have spent the last several weeks working out an agreement that both are comfortable with, and the Johnson County Board of Commissioners will decide whether to approve that final agreement at its Nov. 18 meeting, McLaughlin said. MicroVote has said the equipment will be delivered in early February, which will give them ample time to prepare it for the next election May 5.
The Election Board chose MicroVote due to the ease and size of its machines, its support staff, the county’s experience with the vendor during this year’s elections and the fact that the cost is a packaged deal with no add-ins, McLaughlin has said.
The equipment the county is buying from MicroVote is similar to what was used this year, except newer, and it includes a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. The current system allows poll workers and election officials to view a printable audit of each ballot cast, whereas the new system will allow the voter to see that audit as well.
McLaughlin and the board did not relent in the county’s need for new equipment after a technical failure last November left some voters waiting in lines for hours, and others not voting at all. The county’s old equipment would not be able to handle the turnout at a presidential election, officials have said.
The county had to do something before the 2020 presidential election, especially if this year and last year’s elections were any indication of the possible turnout.
“We don’t have enough equipment — voting machines or e-poll books — to run an election of that magnitude. So if we don’t do something before then, it is going to be cumbersome,” former clerk Susie Misiniec said last year, before the county switched vendors.
For years, the fear was that the county’s voting machines would fail. But they were still in good working order; they were just so old that replacement parts were no longer available. In the end, it was the electronic poll books and vendor that failed, not the actual voting machines.
Still, there wouldn’t have been enough.
"We’ve got to address the whole issue. By 2020, we won’t have enough. We know we won’t," Misiniec said at the time.
County officials had been discussing new election equipment and software for years. The Johnson County Board of Commissioners voted down a proposal for a new system on the heels of the 2016 presidential election. County commissioners decided to wait to purchase a new system for several reasons, including new equipment that was supposedly on the horizon. But the board’s main concern was always how the county was going to pay for it.
This time, they didn’t have a choice.
Voters and poll workers raved about the equipment the county rented this year from its new central Indiana vendor. Initially, that vendor and equipment was a temporary, immediate fix needed after the county fired its previous vendor in February.
Now, it’s a permanent fix, at least through November 2023.
Also on their to-do list is finding and securing at least 24 vote centers and enough poll workers to staff them. That will require the county’s Republican and Democratic parties to reach out to local schools and colleges to find students who are at least 18 years old and have a Johnson County permanent address who want to volunteer and work the polls, McLaughlin said.
There will be more opportunities to vote early during next year’s elections, and McLaughlin will continue to encourage voters to take advantage of it.
"How much more convenient can we make it?" she said.
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Here is a look at voter turnout in the last few primary and general elections, and the last several presidential elections:
2019 general;16.6%
2019 primary;11.9%
2018 general;50.2%
2018 primary;18.2%
2016 general;63%
2016 primary;39.8%
2012 general;60.8%
2012 primary;25.2%
2008 general;64.1%
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