Saturday, March 23, 2024
County Election Preparations Underway
County Election Deputy Jeff Sponsel, shown here in a rare Addison Times photo in which he isn’t collecting paperwork from a candidate, County Clerk Jill Taylor, a MicroVote vendor and Terri Meal test voting machines at the courthouse on Thursday. | by ANNA TUNGATE
If only the entire election process was as smooth as Thursday’s public test of the electronic voting systems. The county clerk’s office, the Shelby County Election Board and a vendor representative found no issues while performing the election year test in the courthouse lobby.
“They set up a percentage of the ballots, go through and test-vote it, then compare what they voted for against the tally tape,” a MicroVote vendor told The Addison Times.
The testing has never revealed a problem. But what if it did? we asked. “We would have to check the machine programming,” the vendor said.
Shelby County is now a vote center, meaning county residents registered to vote are eligible to cast a ballot at any of the 10 polling locations on Election Day.
Shelby County Clerk Jill Lacy said that while the Moral Township Volunteer Fire Department has seen some increase in total voters since the switch to vote centers, presumably due to people traveling to and from work, most of the vote centers “are pretty equal now.”
Early voting for the May 7 primary election begins Tuesday, April 9 and runs through Friday, May 3, weekdays at the Shelby County Courthouse, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Monday, May 6. Both the courthouse and the Intelliplex Conference Center will be open Saturdays, April 27 and May 4, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
NOTEBOOK:
Three Sisters Books & Gifts is hosting their annual Poetry Contest. Rules are provided through the link. Winners will be announced during Poetry Night at The Strand Theatre, Wednesday, April 24, 7 p.m.
NATIONAL NEWS: The U.S. government invested millions of dollars into Direct File, a new IRS program that will allow people with fairly straightforward tax returns to simply and directly file their taxes at no cost. This saves your standard vanilla tax return from having to tithe $200 to TurboTax, and by all accounts the program is excellent. It’s only in a trial phase in 12 states, but so far it’s an example of government-created software going swell. While healthcare.gov was the result of 60 contracts and 33 vendors, Direct File is the result of the government’s own in-house team. In the past week, according to the government’s analytics page, Direct File has gotten 450,000 clicks. (The Atlantic/Numlock)
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This Day in Shelby County History
2014: The Shelbyville Parks and Recreation Department removed garbage cans from city parks in an effort to end littering. Parks Director Karen Martin said there might be an “arduous learning curve” for residents, but they would eventually come around to the rules. The plan was to adopt the Boy Scouts principles of carry in, carry out and leave no trace.
2004: The Major Hospital Board of Directors approved bids to build its new cancer treatment center in Intelliplex Park. Major was also getting a new, more powerful MRI machine.
1994: Three Shelby County girls - Nellie Short, Willandra Macklin and Cary Bedel - were recognized by City Council for their outstanding rendition of the national anthem at the recent Shelbyville High School boys basketball game. “I think we have got some professional talent here,” Mayor Bob Williams said.
1984: Kim Jenkins, bailiff for Shelby Superior Court and wife of Gary Jenkins Sr., gave birth to twins. She was told only one week before the birth she was having twins. The twins were named Amy Danielle and Aaron Dean. They had two older brothers, Alan, 7, and Gary Jr., 12.
1974: City officials announced plans to pick up newspapers and magazines separate from trash. The collected paper would be stored and taken directly to local buyers. Plans were underway to repaint old collection containers to be placed around the city.
1964: County Commissioners purchased 15 American flags to be displayed throughout the courthouse lobby and offices.
Betty Baker, with the local Rambler dealership, Shelby Rambler Fair, received an award for Outstanding Accounting Performance from regional Rambler officials.
1954: Thomas Blankenship Jr., 29, sued the City of Shelbyville for $10,500 after the vehicle he was driving was struck at Washington and Noble by a city police car driven by Officer Dallas Phillips, who had been on a call for the city. Blankenship’s vehicle sustained only $60 worth of damage, but he was suing for personal injuries.
1944: Acting Police Chief Fred Jones proposed moving police to eight-hour shifts instead of the 12-hour plan. He also asked for two more officers, bringing the total to 12 on the department. Officers under the new plan would work 48 hours in a six-day work week.
1934: An evangelist at Calvary Baptist Church spoke about “the fact that many churches of today have become more concerned in political victories than in the salvation of men,” The Republican reported.
Judge James Emmert filed to run for re-election. “‘Jim,’ as he is called in private life by his numerous friends, is known as both a sharpshooter and as a square shooter,” The Republican said. Emmert had been mayor of Shelbyville before becoming Circuit Court judge.
1924: City Council approved funding the oiling of 42 streets. If remonstrances were not filed by April 18, the oiling work would proceed, councilmen said.
1914: Mary Becker, of West Locust Street, was married to James Keeley, of Greensburg, at the close of a theater performance there. The couple was given $25 by the theater company for attracting a full house to the show.
OBITUARIES
None today