Voters demand answers from Madison County commissioners after 6+ hour lines

ANDERSON, Ind. (WISH) — Several upset voters in Madison County showed up to the county commissioners meeting Monday night to demand answers and changes.

It was the first meeting since hundreds waited six to seven hours to vote on Election Day.

There was a back-and-forth discussion as soon as the meeting was over, since the election was not on the agenda or brought up by the commissioners. About 10 people came out to voice their displeasure, some wearing masks that said “Resign.”

As News 8 reported last week, County Clerk Olivia Pratt blamed the county commissioners for not agreeing to vote centers for the election and then not buying more machines.

The commissioners said the process to move to vote centers should have happened earlier and in a non-presidential election year. They said it’s up to the three-member election board to run the election.

County Commissioner Kelly Gaskill said she feels sick about what happened and she’s received email threats which are quite upsetting.

“I don’t want anything to happen to Olivia and of course I don’t want anything to happen to my family,” Gaskill said. “But this finger pointing has got to stop. The world right now is a mess. There’s so much hate. The hate has got to stop. We’ve got to get on the same page.”

Pratt stands by her initial statements and said while she didn’t go back to the county commissioners after the primary to ask for more machines, when she had before the primary, the commissioners had said no.

“I don’t like the back-and-forth, but honestly I’m sick of talking about this. It’s just a tragedy that happened on Election Day that easily could have been prevented,” Pratt said. “We’re going to definitely get with the council and the commissioners and look at ordering more equipment and moving to vote centers for 2022.”

Pratt said she likely needs about 100 more voting machines in the next election, depending on how many sites there are.