Starke Commissioners Discuss E-Poll Books, Accessible Absentee Voting

Posted on June 24, 2017
Author Mary Perren, WKVI

Starke County Clerk Vicki Cooley wants to modernize the election process and make absentee voting at the courthouse more accessible. She spoke to the commissioners Monday about the addition of e-poll books to replace the paper voter lists used at polling sites around the county.

Voter data is accessible on tablet computers which communicate with the county’s electronic voting machines. Cooley says they lessen the likelihood of error, as the sign-in process cannot be completed without all of the necessary information.

Cooley says the technology carries an estimated cost of $50,000.

She also asked the commissioners about the possibility having absentee voting in the first floor conference room at the courthouse. That space is shared by several offices and will need telephone jacks, a copier and a printer to accommodate the needs of the clerks’ office staff. The commissioners suggested she talk to county IT director Mark Gourley about those needs prior to the elections.

Cooley also brought up the need for a new copier for her office, as parts for the current one are becoming obsolete. It can be traded in toward a new machine with fax capabilities. It’s unclear at this time how much if any the electronic filing of some court documents will reduce copier use. The commissioners did not take any action on the request.

Clerk’s Office to Close For Software Training Through 1/29

January 15, 2016AuthorMary Perren, WKVI 

Starting today, the Starke County Clerk’s office will be closed for an hour each day to accommodate staff training. It will occur between noon and 1 p.m. each weekday through Jan. 29th.

Clerk Vicki Cooley and her staff are learning the new case management software program Odyssey. It will go live Feb. 1st. The state has provided the clerk’s office and Starke County Courts 11 new computers and a new printer as part of the transition to a statewide system.

Odyssey will maintain criminal and civil case records and allow them to be shared easily with courts in other jurisdictions as well as other federal, state and local agencies like the BMV and law enforcement. Once it’s in place, state officials say Odyssey will allow the state’s trial courts and clerks to manage the more than 2 million cases filed annually faster and more efficiently.

Questions Remain Over North Judson Ordinance Recertification

Published: July 29, 2015 By: Tyler Maffitt, WKVI

The Starke County Clerk’s office will continue attempts to receive confirmation regarding an issue that may have affected past elections.

During Monday’s Starke County Election Board meeting, recertified ordinances from the Town of North Judson were considered. The Town felt it necessary to bring annexation and ward map issues back from 2001 and 2012 after the ordinances were improperly certified. The error could make the annexation and ward map changes invalid.

Board member Dan Bridegroom says the there are multiple places an ordinance must be certified.

“The auditor’s office, the clerk’s office, the state of Indiana,” says Bridegroom. “Those are the three places. Once it’s done with that, it will come back to [the clerk’s office] with a certification of new people, then the maps change. We can’t change that map.”

Apart from questioning the responsibility of the Election Board in the annexation matter, those present during Monday’s meeting agreed it was necessary to understand how the annexation was affecting the voting public in North Judson.

While it remains clear the ordinances were improperly certified, the Starke County Clerk’s office had, prior to the issue surfacing, made the changes to the Statewide Voter Registration System maps. North Judson residents are thought by the Board to be correctly mapped as a result. That means that so long as the annexation is viewed as valid, the Clerk’s office believes no voting rights were denied, or illegally allowed.

State statute indicates that just because an ordinance certification was not successfully completed, it does not necessarily invalidate the annexation. That issue is what the Town of North Judson and the Starke County Clerk’s office are working to confirm.

Starke County Clerk Vicki Cooley says that somewhere along the line, the map change was likely made from the Clerk’s office.

“It wasn’t maybe recorded or put actually on some of the mappings that it should have, but it was changed in the system,” says Cooley. “There have been no provisional ballots that have been requested, these people did vote.”

As things stand, the Starke County Clerk’s office believes residents in the annexed portions of North Judson from 2001 are still allowed to vote this November.

Clerk’s Office Says Chances “Very Low” Unrecognized Resident Cast Ballot in North Judson Town Election

Published: July 10, 2015

By: Tyler Maffitt, WKVI

Officials with the Starke County Clerk’s office says they have methods in place to ensure residents cast election ballots in the proper place.

The comments follow the realization that the Town of North Judson did not properly file an annexation ordinance from 2001, and an ordinance outlining election Wards from 2012, with the Starke County Clerk’s office. Because the ordinances were not properly filed, the Starke County Clerk’s office is unable to recognize them until they’re recertified.

Starke County Clerk Vicki Cooley has previously commented on the possible implications, saying she does not know at this time if its possible individuals residing in the annexed sections of North Judson could have cast a ballot in a Town election, incorrectly.

Poll books are used to cross check an individual’s residency prior to casting a ballot in Starke County. Officials with the Clerk’s office, however, say that if it was possible for an individual residing in the annexed portion of North Judson to vote in a Town election, the chances are considered “very low” that it happened.

WKVI has requested information for elections held in North Judson between 2001: when the annexation ordinance was approved, and the Municipal Primary in 2015 – which was the last election prior to realizing the error. That process may take several days to complete, according to the Clerk’s office.

Cooley says she plans to address the matter with the Indiana Secretary of State’s Election Division in the near future.