Secretary of State Todd Rokita visited Warsaw Friday afternoon to discuss voting centers and the voting process.
Rokita spoke with newly-elected Kosciusko County Circuit Court Clerk Jason McSherry at the Kosciusko County Justice Building.
McSherry has served as the county's clerk since Jan. 1.
Rokita, who serves as chief election officer for Indiana, visits counties even in a non-election year to discuss elections.
"Jason is a new clerk and so much of the work as a circuit court clerk has to deal with elections and as Indiana's chief election officer I wanted to make sure I came here and got off on the right foot with him," Rokita said.
He said the chief election officer doesn't oversee elections alone and said the real work is done at the county level.
Rokita said the circuit court clerk, election board, and the poll workers are essential to the election process.
"I wanted to make sure I came personally to let Kosciusko County know its clerk is well-supported by his chief election officer," Rokita said.
Besides his stop in Warsaw Friday, Rokita also visited Trine University, Angola, and gave a key note address to celebrate its newly-accredited business school.
He also visited Hall's Hollywood Diner, Fort Wayne, where he did a public broadcast for a PBS special called "Money Track" that will air nationwide.
The segment was on seeing what Indiana is doing to clean up Indiana's white collar crime, Rokita said. He also stopped in Miami County.
Rokita said he visits 92 counties each year because he thinks that can help him be a more effective secretary of state.
"The ideas I get from how to run this state come from visiting county courthouses," Rokita said.
"It's in the clerk's office where the rubber meets the road and the minute you don't have a fair and accurate election to everyone is the minute you lose this republic."
He said there has been a lot of attention focused the last eight years on election reform.
"We've seen more election reform in the last few years than we have seen since the Voting Rights Act of 1965," Rokita said.
He said the election process has changed over the years with new voting machinery, photo identification requirements, and a statewide voter file.
Rokita discussed November's election process.
"I think it was a shining moment for Indiana. The focus was on the candidates and for the first time in a very long time Indiana mattered as a state," Rokita said.
He said his goal as secretary of state is to make sure Indiana matters every election.
He also said he is supporting a study committee that has passed a senate resolution that will study the presidential primary system.
The study will decide if it should be seperate from the rest of the primary and the costs.
Rokita discussed voting centers and said he thinks they are a more secure way to vote if they are approved.
"With vote centers instead of poll books you will have computer screens that will be used as a poll book and it will be linked in real time to the other vote centers and the state-wide voter file," Rokita said.
He said there is another bill that is being considered for online voter registration.
He said those who would register to vote online would be required to have a drivers license and signatures would be verified by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
He said counties could individually decide the number of voting centers they would want.
"The only parameter we put in is that there must be at least one vote center for every 10,000 people," Rokita said.
He said the number of vote centers could be based on voter turnout with presidential and municipal elections.
