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Two of the three vote centers the Kosciusko County Election Board considered closing Monday will remain open for the fall election, while the decision on the third was tabled.
The fourth vote center discussed by the board, at the Pierceton Community Building, 105 W. Walnut St., Pierceton, will move to Harvest Community Church, 512 S. Seventh St., Pierceton.
The vote centers to remain open are Amazing Grace Community Church, 202 W. Arthur St., Sidney; and Heritage Park Building, 338 S. Walnut St., Etna Green. The vote center at the Winona Lake Senior Center, 1590 Park Ave., Winona Lake, was tabled to see if another, close alternative location could be found.
The closing of the vote centers was a proposal that came to the Election Board, explained Austin Rovenstine, Republican representative on the board. “After the last election, there were certain vote centers that had low turnout and there was a suggestion made that maybe we eliminate those vote centers on our vote center plan, so we brought that to the Election Board in a public meeting, and solicited voter input to that purpose,” he said.
Sidney
The Election Board looked at each vote center individually Monday, beginning with the Sidney location.
Kosciusko County Clerk Melissa Boggs said Sidney had to be closed in the last election because of damage to the building that wasn’t repaired in time, so she didn’t have any statistics from that vote center in the 2026 primary. As for the 2022 primary, Amazing Grace Community Church had 286 voters; 2022 general, 601 voters; 2024 primary, 281 voters; and in the 2024 general election, they had 711 there. Boggs said the church said they will be available for the 2026 general election.
The distance from the church to another polling location, in Pierceton, is about 7 miles; to Silver Lake, the distance is about 11 miles; and to Claypool, about 9 miles.
Boggs said she received one letter regarding the Amazing Grace Community Church vote center location, from Lynn and Danny Studebaker. They asked the Election Board to reconsider closing the vote center.
In part, the letter stated, “I truly look forward to voting there at election time. There is a real and special sense of community standing in line, greeting neighbors, as we wait to vote. When Sidney is closed, I sometimes do not vote because I do not want to vote in Pierceton.”
Kosciusko County Republican Party Central Committee Chair Mike Ragan said he attended the Sidney Town Board meeting a few weeks ago, and the potential of the vote center being closed was brought up.
“Everybody in the room was up in arms about it. They were upset that they didn’t get to vote in Sidney in the last election, which was due to the water problem, and they had to go to Pierceton or Claypool or Silver Lake. It’s a hardship for the people who live in Sidney, and we do have a significant amount of people that are voting in that poll,” Ragan said, asking the board not to close the Sidney vote center.
After hearing from the public, Bill Morton, Democrat representative on the board, said, “I know we spent a lot of time on previous years trying to identify alterate locations in Sidney and we weren’t able to really find any place other than the current one.”
He said, looking at the numbers from the primary this year, people in the Sidney area mostly went up to Pierceton to vote, but it also appeared they lost some voters.
Rovenstine agreed with the members of the public, especially on the small town locations.
“Voting is one of the few things that some of these towns still do together as a community, and I think that these civic rituals are important, and the fact that we lost a few voters from Sidney when it was closed down in the primary is significant in and of itself. A few voters can make a difference, and where we put our polling locations in Kosciusko County has an effect on who gets elected sometimes, and if the small towns aren’t represented, then sometimes small town candidates struggle, so I would be opposed to closing down the Amazing Grace vote center,” Rovenstine stated.
With no motion made by the board on the Sidney vote center, it’ll remain open in the fall.
Etna Green
On the Heritage Park vote center in Etna Green, Boggs said in the 2022 primary they had 169 voters show up; 2022 general election, 345 voters; 2024 primary, 133 voters; 2024 general, 406; and in the 2026 primary, they had 77 voters show up.
The distance between Heritage Park and Atwood Community Center is 5 miles; Mt. Tabor Hall, 9 miles; Mentone fire station, 8 miles; and the Pathway Church is 9 miles away.
No letters or emails were received on the Heritage Park vote center, Boggs said.
Susan Klinefelter, Etna Green Town Council member, said she was speaking on behalf of all the town’s residents as she has been talking to people about the vote center.
“I’ll tell you, every one of them, when I ask them, tell them what is being proposed, and every one of them said, ‘I just won’t vote.’ So, you need to consider this because you’re just going to be losing votes. They’re not just going to drive somewhere,” she said.
Ragan spoke again, saying he also went to the Etna Green Town Board meeting recently, presented the possibility of the vote center closing there, and the reaction was similar to Sidney’s - “the people in the room were just almost in uproar about it.”
Rovenstine said the reasons he gave for keeping Sidney’s vote center open also applies to Etna Green’s and he was in favor of keeping Heritage Park’s vote center open.
Morton said he appreciated the fact that there was a community aspect there.
“But it would also be nice if the people who are so passionate about having these vote centers stay open also volunteer to work in the polls, because I think, my experience, it’s very challenging to get people to sign up to work in polling places that have low turnout because they spend the entire day there ... and on one’s coming in to vote,” he said. “It’s not just the expense. It’s also just the practicality of keeping the place open if people aren’t voting and it’s not that far to go to other places.”
Boggs agreed, saying, “I do feel like a lot of our poll workers come from other areas to work these smaller locations. ... I would agree that everyone who is so passionate about it, I would strongly suggest having them reach out to Mike Ragan or Vicki Morton to volunteer to work in their hometowns so it wouldn’t be as much of a challenge to find workers in those locations.”
No motion was made on Heritage Park, so the vote center will not change.
Poll Worker Pay
Ann Torpy, former county clerk and current chief deputy, stated, “I would also, as former clerk and a person who has trained poll workers for 30 years, like to add that I think it’s in the best interest, in the next budget, that the County Election Board submit a wage committee request to increase poll worker pay. I think that, when you sit and you’re making $10 an hour for 77 voters, it’s very discouraging. Not to mention, like Lynn (Howie) said, you have to be there Monday morning to get your materials, you have to be there Tuesday, you have to be back there Wednesday, you have to drive to Warsaw, back to Etna Green, back to Warsaw. And not just Etna Green.”
Inspectors make $10.71 an hour for a 14-hour day, not including Monday or Wednesday or driving back.
The clerks get $7.86 an hour to work 14 hours, and some inspectors expect them to be there Monday night to help set up and they’re not getting paid for that, Torpy stated.
“I know, in my past experience as clerk, it is hard to get the wage committee to understand that. I was hoping one of the (county) councilmen that went to Etna Green’s town council meeting about this issue would have showed up today so I could express that to him that these poll workers need to be paid,” she said. “Our absentee board works an eight-hour shift. They get $12.50 an hour. Bump them up a little bit, that might be helpful. We did make changes to paying them for training. They do get paid $20 if they attend the training, but that $20 isn’t going to cover their gas back and forth nowadays.”
She said she would like for the Election Board to try to get that pay raised, especially before the 2028 election. “Mike and Vicki might have better luck at getting poll workers when they’re getting paid more for their time. And, yes, it is a civic duty,” Torpy said.
With state law changes, she said it’s also hard to get workers because they have to take off from their regular job on Monday to meet a delivery team to get their machines.
“There’s just so many rule changes that are hindering poll workers and finding poll workers, but now they’re afraid to work. Some of them are afraid to work. We have that problem a lot, that they get there at training and then they call the next day and say they’re not doing it. Maybe, if we have a little better pay, we can incite them more to stay,” Torpy said.
Rovenstine said it was his understanding that both of the party chairs were on board with the pay increases, and Ragan said, “Absolutely.”
Winona Lake
Moving on to the Winona Lake Senior Center, Boggs said in the 2022 primary and general elections, the Senior Center was not in use. In 2024, there were 142 voters in the primary there, and 311 voters in the general election. In the 2026 primary, there were 129 voters there.
From the Senior Center to Christ’s Covenant Church, another vote center, is 1.7 miles; to the Shrine Building at the fairgrounds, 1.7 miles; to Valley Springs, 2.5 miles; and to Lake City Pentecostal Church, 2 miles.
An email from Craig Nayrocker said he thought the vote center could be closed, while Clint Johnson emailed that he doesn’t drive and it was a very easy walk to the Senior Center. Johnson thought it was a good idea to keep a vote center open in the heart of Winona Lake.
In 2022, when the Senior Center was not used, Rovenstine asked if there was an alternative location. Boggs said it was Christ’s Covenant Church and they got bombarded because the vote center at New Life Christian Church was closed, and Valley Springs vote center was opened, but everyone from New Life and Winona Lake went to Christ’s Covenant, causing a bit of a cluster, which was why the Senior Center was opened. Boggs said it’s kind of equaled out now with Valley Springs opened, but there’s not quite the turnout that was expected at the Senior Center.
Parking at the Senior Center was cited as an issue. Morton mentioned he was in favor of an in-town vote center, but it’s hard to find a place and the Senior Center is not ideal. Ragan asked about using the Town Hall.
Boggs pointed out the state recommendation is only six vote centers for Kosciusko County. They currently have 21.
Torpy recommended the Senior Center vote center be tabled until another location could be found. Rovenstine made a motion to leave the vote center as is until they can find another location, and the motion passed unanimously.
Pierceton
The last vote center was the Pierceton Community Center. Boggs said they were notified after the spring election that the Community Center was going to add Real Services into their building and it was already kind of a cramped situation there. The poll inspector reached out to Harvest Community Church, and the pastor was “very excited” about the church being a vote center. Harvest also has a good parking lot and fits all the requirements and would have a good space for the vote center, Boggs said.
Ragan said he was in favor of moving the Pierceton vote center as the Senior Center has a parking problem. Morton made a motion to accept Harvest Community Church as a new vote center, and the motion passed unanimously.
