The Monroe County election board is considering shortening early voting hours for next year’s midterm, due to a reduced overtime budget from the county council.
In a board meeting last week, Monroe County Clerk Nicole Browne reluctantly proposed scaling back early voting to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., a two-hour difference from Monroe County’s traditional 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. window in the 28-day run-up to Election Day.
The change would reflect regular clerk’s office hours and abide by the minimum number of hours required by Indiana statute.
The Monroe County council cut overtime funding for several departments, including the clerk’s office, because of revenue deficits from Senate Enrolled Act 1.
Democratic board member Penny Githens took issue with ending the extended hours, saying it would disenfranchise people who rely on flexibility to vote.
“Shortening daily hours would disproportionately affect voters who rely on the flexibility voting options, such as working families, students, seniors and those with transportation barriers,” she said.
But Republican member Danny Shields said that with the current budget, something had to give.
“The issue is we have to pay the people that work those longer hours, and the council has not chosen to give the money to work those longer hours,” he said.
There was no final vote on changing voting hours during the meeting. The board will request a higher budget from the county council in January.
In the same meeting, Githens spoke on Monroe County’s long-standing debate on whether to switch from precinct-based voting sites to vote centers. She highlighted data from the Indiana secretary of state’s office that indicated vote centers saved elections offices roughly $2 a voter.
Shields, who previously voted against adopting a vote center model in May, said he would pass that information onto to Monroe County Republican Party chairman Cory Grass.
