Published: May 06, 2008 10:33 am            

NEW: Southern Vigo County polling site overcomes delay

TERRE HAUTE — Southern Vigo County is a rural area, but featured some voting-day buzz as the Indiana primary began this morning.

Booths at the Hoosier Prairie Elementary School polling site were full at 7 a.m., with a handful of people waiting to cast ballots at that Prairieton location.

Meanwhile, voting at the Prairie Creek-A precinct was delayed after the poll inspector ended up at a different location by mistake. Some prospective voters who showed up for the scheduled opening at 6 a.m. left, said Vigo County Clerk Pat Mansard.

“Without knowing who they are, we hope they will have an opportunity to come back to the polls and vote,” Mansard said.

Poll inspectors are responsible for the keys to the voting equipment at each site, including the supply box containing ballots, Mansard said. Inspectors are selected by the political parties, with Democrats in charge of those appointments for 2008, Mansard said. The Clerk’s Office trains those inspectors once they’ve been chosen, she added.

“We were about 35 to 40 minutes late getting that precinct open,” Mansard said. “We did everything possible to prevent that from happening.”

Debbie Kirk, director of Vigo County Voter Registration, said she had originally assigned inspector Jim Williams to the Hoosier Prairie precinct by mistake, but then a week ago called Williams to reassign him to the Prairie Creek-A site, which is the community building at 5401 W. Middleton Drive.

Williams, who lives on Terre Haute’s north side, said he mistakenly reported at 4:30 a.m. to the firehouse at Prairieton, which is 7 miles north of Prairie Creek on Indiana 63. That firehouse formerly was a polling site, before being shifted to Hoosier Prairie in recent elections.

“I assumed that’s where it was,” Williams said, “and I was incorrect.”

Using cell phones, Williams was directed to the Prairie Creek-A precinct, and Mansard said a computer technician and two Election Board members were dispatched there to assist in the situation. She said the polling site opened by approximately 6:35 a.m., although Williams estimated the voting time lost was only 15 minutes.

At 8:30, Williams said, “Everything’s running smooth.”

A Vigo County polling site not opening on time at 6 a.m. is “extremely rare,” Mansard said. The last instance was “a long time ago,” when an inspector, appointed that year by the Republican Party, overslept.

“We just can’t have this happening,” Mansard said.

Mansard said she conducted 3-hour training sessions last week for the inspectors, urging them to visit their assigned precincts on Monday, election eve. The goal is for them to know the poll’s location, the process of opening the site, find the telephone line used for transmitting results, make sure all of the equipment is there and ready, and contact fellow poll workers to make sure they arrive at 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

“I take this very seriously, because we work so hard to make things run smoothly,” Mansard said.

By 11:15 a.m. today, 283 people had voted at the Hoosier Prairie site, which includes both Honey Creek-B and Prairieton-A precincts. Of that total, 135 voted in Honey Creek-B, while 148 voted in Prairieton-A.

That turnout "seems like it's pretty good," said Sheila Westra, Hoosier Prairie poll inspector.

Westra estimated a majority of those voters selected Democratic ballots.

Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

        

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