Polls open until 6 p.m. tonight for delayed primary election

The 2020 primary election is underway, a month later than normal. In Bartholomew County, you can cast ballots at one of 8 vote centers until 6 tonight.

Those vote centers will be at at Flintwood Wesleyan Church, Donner Center, Terrace Lake Church, Elizabethtown Fire Station, Ogilville United Methodist Church, Hope Moravian Church, German Township Fire Station and St. John’s Masonic Lodge.

Most Bartholomew County voters will be deciding on a referendum for Bartholomew Consolidated Schools to raise teachers’ pay, as well as the Democratic candidates for this fall’s Statehouse race and Republican races for Superior Court judge, County Commissioner and County Council at large.

Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps talked recently about the health and safety procedures in place during this election.

He said that voting machines will be sanitized after each use, as well as poll equipment such as pens and the poll books. He said the secretary of state has provided personal protective equipment for poll workers.

Phelps said that voters can not be forced to wear masks, but for the safety of others, he hopes they will decide to do so.

Phelps said the county had to dramatically scale back the number of polling locations this election after many elderly poll workers decided to bow out due to health concerns related to the pandemic. In the last countywide election, there were 18 voting centers.