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The Indiana Democratic Party has filed a complaint with the Hamilton County Election Board, accusing of it of failing to open polling locations on time for Tuesday’s election.
Hamilton County Election Administrator Bethany Sheller, however, said all the polls opened on time and an issue that briefly complicated voter check-in was quickly resolved.
The complaint from Democrats says a technical issue is to blame for the 15- to 30-minute delays in opening six polling sites, delays that the Democrats say disenfranchised voters who had to leave and didn’t get to cast their ballots.
But Sheller said a coding complication caused by a vendor required polling clerks to take an extra step to check in voters that some were not immediately aware of. She said information on how to address the issue was quickly shared with poll workers.
In a news release Tuesday, Indiana Democratic Party Executive Director Dayna Colbert said: “The polls in Hamilton County did not open on time at 6 AM local time as required by state law, and an unknown number of voters were disenfranchised and walked away.”
She said the party wants to make sure “every registered Indiana voter has the ability to fairly and equally cast their ballot, and that was not the case this morning.”
Sheller maintains, however, that the county began checking in voters at 6 a.m. and had 420 voters checked in by 6:05 a.m., 1,077 voters checked in by 6:10 a.m., 1,815 voters by 6:15 a.m., 2,559 voters by 6:20 a.m., 3,361 by 6:25 a.m., 4,171 by 6:30 a.m.
The Democratic Party says at least six polling locations had delayed openings. According to the complaint filed Tuesday, they were: College Park, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Carmel Water Distribution, Billericay Park Building, Northview Church in Fishers, and The Meeting House at West Clay.
Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Jocelyn Vare signed the complaint, which asks the election board to conduct an inquiry into the technological malfunction, determine its impact and decide how it can be prevented in the future.
Sheller criticized Vare for first taking her complaint to the media rather than talking to her to get correct and complete information.
“I am greatly disturbed that anyone would want to disparage the hard work of over 1,000 workers who have poured much time and effort into ensuring all voters in Hamilton County got to cast their vote,” Sheller said in an email.
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