Election Day site at Purdue? Still possible, but ‘more than hard,’ election official says

Early voting being lined up at Co-Rec after Purdue was left off polling places. Critics still press for Election Day site on campus, too. Election Board staff: Easier said than done at this point.

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ELECTION DAY SITE AT PURDUE? STILL POSSIBLE, BUT ‘MORE THAN HARD,’ ELECTION OFFICIAL SAYS

A Tippecanoe County elections official said Purdue looked to be pulling out all the stops during a walk-through this week of the Córdova Rec Center, after the two sides hustled in the past week to find a site for voting amid escalating criticism the initial election plans had no polling places on the West Lafayette campus.

“Gold standard service,” Mike Smith, a staff member with the Tippecanoe County Board of Elections, said Thursday, after meeting on-campus with what he called a team of Purdue staff there to go over logistics. (County Clerk Julie Roush, who also is part of the county’s three-member Election Board, said, “We couldn’t be more pleased with Purdue.”)

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

On Wednesday, the county and Purdue issued a joint statement that they were eyeing an early polling place on Oct. 24 at the Co-Rec, in an apparent fix to the lack of on-campus voting options initially rolled out in August. The Tippecanoe County Election Board is scheduled to meet Sept. 27 to finalize that plan.

Smith said details were still being worked out, but the plan for voting in a Co-Rec gym likely would include 15 voting stations during a session running from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. that day.

“That’s not set in stone,” Smith said Thursday. “I think that's going to work. Especially with the intense level of machines and manpower we're going to throw at that – kind of a Boiler Blitz sort of thing – I think that's a good window.”

Voter advocates have followed up this week: Is there still room to squeeze in an Election Day site on campus?

“Why can’t we have what we have had every other election year?” Lisa Dullum, a Tippecanoe County Council member, said earlier this week after the Co-Rec site was floated. “I hope they are still working on it.”

Purdue officials have deferred questions beyond official statements from the university about vote center questions until after the Election Board meets next week. That has included questions about whether the university would be willing to host and accommodate an Election Day site, open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Nov. 5.

Smith said state statutes allow that sort of move into October. But he said that adding an Election Day spot on campus – or anywhere in the community – this late would pose challenges for the Election Board.

“An Election Day site is more than hard, I’ll just put it that way, at this stage in the game,” Smith said. “It’s regrettable. We’ve sincerely tried to work on this since the primary. Where we are in the calendar, what I can say is, never say never. That’s about the best I can do for you right now. … Although, I think the situation is still fluid. Every day seems to have an update.”

The Tippecanoe County Election Board voted on Aug. 15 to set up 15 Election Day vote centers and nine early voting sites, starting Oct. 8. Election officials said at the time that the county looked to work through logistics – including getting state-required dedicated and secure connections for voter registration data as well as state-required parking spaces – with Purdue and suggested various sites on campus without getting the university to commit before the Election Board vote.

Election Day vote centers will include one at West Lafayette City Hall – about three blocks from the eastern edge of campus – and five hours of early voting on Oct. 22 at First United Methodist Church, a half-mile west of the university’s residence halls on Mitch Daniels Boulevard.

University officials scrambled earlier this week, after news accounts about the lack of polling places, offering to work with the county on finding an on-campus site. In its joint statement with the county Election Board, Purdue officials said early voting at the Co-Rec would “provide further access, in addition to the previously announced locations in walking proximity of the West Lafayette campus.”

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

In the past four presidential elections, on-campus vote centers – both early and on Election Day – have produced between 2,426 and 7,268 votes. The turnout at on-campus vote centers have accounted for between 4.4% and 10.4% of the total Tippecanoe County turnout in those years.

Smith said the hard part for the Election Board largely boils down to equipment and how it already is being set up.

The county has 275 ballot machines, he said. Some of those are committed to early voting, which collect what technically are “absentee in person” ballots. Smith said those machines may be reused in early voting sites set up in the four weeks before Election Day, with the results counted after polls close on Nov. 5. He said those absentee in person results are canvassed separately on Election Night, and the machines, by state law, can’t be reused at an Election Day vote center.

Election Day machines already have been assigned to vote centers and are being and programmed through the vote machine vendor and reported to state election officials ahead of required random testing and certification before voting starts. 

A public test and certification of the county’s voting machines is scheduled for the Sept. 27 Election Board meeting.

Smith called it election law minutiae but that redeploying vote machines at this point “is harder than people might realize.”

In that mix, Smith said the election office continues to field criticism from other parts of the county, particularly in spots farther removed from the bulk of Election Day vote centers in Lafayette and West Lafayette, about having to drive 10 or more miles to a polling place while hearing complaints about students who might have to walk three blocks off campus to West Lafayette City Hall on Nov. 5.

“Can things change for Election Day sites?” Smith said. “Let’s say it’s easier said than done.”

• If you go: The Tippecanoe County Election Board will meet at 10 a.m. Sept. 27 at the County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette.

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ICYMI …

TIM’S PICKS, REPLAY: If you’re still planning your weekend, check this week’s edition of Tim’s Picks for five prime things in play heading into the weekend. Featuring: Lee Brice at Loeb Stadium, Global Fest No. 29 in downtown West Lafayette, ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ at Elliott Hall, art openings in downtown Lafayette and more.

SAVING THE FITZGERALD: On Saturday, Preserve Historic Lafayette will help host an open house for the recent renovation of the Fitzgerald House at Eighth and Columbia streets in downtown Lafayette. I asked Sean Lutes, a local historic preservationist and downtown advocate, to walk through some of the history of the building and what it took to finally save a house that seemed destined to rot. Here’s a look at that account, posted Thursday at Based in Lafayette.

Thanks, again, to this edition’s sponsor, Lafayette Rotary, offering Founders 1905 Coffee as a way of supporting its charitable endeavors. For more details and to purchase, go to founders1905.com.

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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.