Even with many unanswered questions, the Fayette County Election Board voted Tuesday to move forward with using vote centers during some future election.
That is if Gov. Mitch Daniels signs legislation approved last week by the General Assembly that would extend to all counties the right to move to vote center concept.
”I’m all for it,” said Election Board President Nancy Lengle, the Democratic representative to the board.
Republican board member Jackie Pyle said she did not have information about vote centers but thought it could be a good idea.
Counties that have experimented with vote centers have eliminated most of them, replacing them with fewer centralized voting locations. For instance, Wayne County has used four vote centers since 2007. Any voter registered in the county can vote at any of the centers, which are connected electronically to voter registration records in Richmond.
Fayette County board members want to know how the voter registration books would be connected to the vote centers to ensure no one votes more than once. They also asked who sets up the computer system to manage vote centers.
Clerk Melinda Sudhoff said she would be attending a meeting of county election officials Feb. 28 and hoped to get answers to a lot of those questions. She also might ask Wayne County Clerk Jo Ann Stewart to visit with the local election board about that county’s experiences.
Stewart has said voting centers are easier to administer, require fewer election workers and save money.
Sudhoff said the use of vote centers would not occur before the fall municipal election at the earliest and maybe not until the 2012 election cycle.
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