Early voting starts in Marion County with social distancing, machine sanitizing

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Marion County election officials expect 100,000 people to cast their votes via absentee ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The deadline to get an absentee ballot by mail for the primary election has passed, and the ballots already sent out have to be returned to the Marion County Clerk’s Office by noon June 1. There is one last alternative if you can’t or don’t want to vote at a local polling place during the primary June 2: early in-person voting.

Darryl Fraylon was one of a handful of people who made their way to the City-County Building on Tuesday for the first day of early in-person voting.

“Strange, very strange, but very necessary,” Fraylon said.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb moved the primary election from May 5 to June 2 as a safety measure during the coronavirus pandemic.

During early voting at the clerk’s office on Tuesday, the poll workers stayed 6 feet from voters and a protective barriers provided additional protection. Nearly everyone working the early in-person voting site wore face coverings and gloves. A sign in the clerk’s office says the electronic voting machines are cleaned after each use.

“I was glad to see that this entity seems to be doing its part to protect the public, so I was heartened and reminded to do my part, which is why this (his mask) is here,” Fraylon said.

The pandemic has driven up the demand for vote-by-mail or absentee ballots in Marion County to the point that the clerk’s office struggled to process all of the applications.

“In early and late March, when the special distancing guidelines, where that we can only have 10 people in the office at a time, that made it extremely difficult to process the demand that we received in vote-by-mail applications,” said Russell Hollis, deputy director of the clerk’s office.

If 100,000 vote by absentee ballot, that would be 20,000 more than the peak of 80,000 during the 2016 general election. To count the absentee ballots will require people and a lot of time.

“We will have most of our results on election night, but counting all of the absentee ballots is unlikely that we will be able to do that on election night,” Hollis said.

With the primary election delayed almost a month and absentee mail in ballots in high demand, there are several anxious want a be officer holders that will have to wait for results

“If it’s a close race for some of the more local offices, they may have to wait until the next day for us to finish counting those absentee ballots,” Hollis said.