State Rep. Ed Soliday calls for Indiana secretary of state's office to investigate Porter County election issues
NWI Times
November 13, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/state-rep-ed-soliday-calls-for-indiana-secretary-of-state/article_1a0a8a03-e040-55e4-938a-04cb54627d63.html
State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, is requesting the Indiana secretary of state's office review the Porter County election system after mistakes caused a three-day delay in the release of results.
Soliday said in a letter Monday sent to Secretary of State Connie Lawson he believed last week's election disaster was due to last-minute changes in responsibility for general election management, which caused polls to be understaffed and open late. Early voting ballots were also not sent to their proper ,precincts and there were reports poll workers lacked proper training.
He said Porter County's election process had for years shown signs of “weakness and unresolved issues,” including a resistance to modernization, public personality conflicts and difficulty recruiting and training election staff.
He requested the secretary of state, and any other agencies necessary, conduct a review, which he hoped would lead to recommendations to correct issues with the county's election process.
Soliday, who is on the House Committee for Elections and Apportionment, told The Times Monday he had spoken with the secretary of the state's staff about the issue.
“This did not start on election night,” he said. “It's been going on for years.”
Soliday won his own bid last week to remain representative for House District 4, which represents the city of Valparaiso and nearby rural areas. He said he babysat his grandson to take his mind off the election, but the late results meant he could not vote Nov. 7 for his party's caucus leadership.
Worse than that, the disarray undermined voter confidence, Soliday said.
The representative said his experience as vice president of quality assurance and security for United Airlines guided his thinking on how to address the election problems.
He said there was no doubt some election officials erred, but checks and balances in the system should have prevented the chaos the county saw last week.
He said it was about the process, not the people.
“Where did the process fail, and where should there have been a second set of eyes?” he asked.
He said the Porter County Council* nixed an idea in January to purchase new digital election equipment and switch from traditional, neighborhood-based precinct voting to more flexible voting centers, which allow residents to cast their ballot at any polling place in the county, rather than exclusively in their precinct.
He questioned whether modernizing the system would have prevented last week's problems.
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