Monroe County voters will have six fewer polling locations to choose from come November’s general election – but more residents are choosing to vote by mail this year, as well.
County Election Supervisor Karen Wheeler said the reduction from 34 to 28 polling sites is in part due to the pandemic.
For example, Meadowood Retirement Community will no longer host voters and poll workers because of heightened visitor restrictions due to COVID-19.
“Obviously, they’re not going to want us in there – we can’t even go in there," she said.
And although many counties across the country are reporting a shortage in poll workers, Wheeler said she won’t have any trouble manning polling locations in November.
While Wheeler said voting locations will be well-staffed and fully sanitized, more Monroe County residents than usual are opting to vote by mail this year.
In this year’s primary, Wheeler saw 23,000 vote by mail applications, due in large part to the temporary removal of absentee voting restrictions amid the pandemic. Those restrictions have since been reinstated, making it more difficult for Hoosiers to choose to vote by mail.
Wheeler said either option is a good one.
“If anybody is hesitant, we don’t try to convince them," she said. "You know, everybody’s got to make their choice. And they have to make their choice on how they want to vote – if they want to come to Election Central, I feel like it’s very safe."
In the 2016 general election, around 3,300 Monroe County residents voted by mail. And as of this week, with more than a month left until the deadline to request to vote absentee, Wheeler said she has had 8,000 requests for this year’s mail-in general election ballots.
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot in Indiana is Oct. 22.
