The Marion County Election Board will be taking public testimony on the issue of satellite voting at its next meeting, Aug. 31 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in room 107 of the City-County Building.
Hoosier voters can cast a ballot on Election Day or absentee: by mail, traveling board or early, in-person at the clerk’s office.
Satellite voting is an expansion of in-person early voting where additional locations are opened throughout the county, usually closer to where people live, work and take their kids to school. However, the bipartisan Election Board must unanimously agree to open satellite sites.
“Tens of thousands of voters benefited when the Election Board set aside their partisan differences and opened satellite early voting locations in 2008 and 2009,” Clerk Beth White said. “I remain optimistic Mayor Greg Ballard and the Republican Party will agree to open additional early voting locations to help stimulate turnout, especially in a municipal election year where voter turnout is historically low.”
In 2008, the board reached an agreement and opened two satellite early voting locations on the Northside and Southside of Indianapolis. Response was overwhelming. While 34,622 people used the City-County Building over 29 days, 38,957 people used the satellite sites in just 11 days. For the 2009 special election, the board expanded the number of sites from two to three, and again more voters used a satellite location than the primary clerk’s office.
After running two successful elections using satellite sites, the Republican Party did not agree to a plan in 2010. Clerk White responded by opening two remote clerk’s office locations to early voters as permitted under Indiana law. The Republican-run Legislature changed the law in the last legislative session and limited early voting to one clerk’s office in each county unless the board agrees to open satellite locations.
