Vigo County Election Board looks ahead to General Election

Vigo County Election Board looks ahead to General Election

Until august 5th.

The general election this november is generating a lot of buzz across the country.

A question a lot of you have been asking us here at news 10..

Is how absentee voting will go this time around?

Due to covid-19...indiana lifted restrictions so that anyone who wanted to vote absentee in the "primary" could but there's a possibility this is *not* the case in the "general" election.

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News 10's dominic miranda spoke with the vigo county clerk today.

He joins us now live in our newsroom with more on what you can expect for the upcoming election.

Indiana is one of eight states that still has not announced if you can vote absentee without an excuse.

This morning...the vigo county election board met to start planning for what the general election will look like this fall i spoke with vigo county clerk brad newman about where they are....and the absentee voting question everyone is asking.

Covid-19 has made for intensive planning for election officials looking ahead to the upcoming general election.

The vigo county election board met on wednesday morning to discuss their strategy.

Vigo county clerk brad newman says they'll be prepared no matter what....but plans are fluid with new information coming out about covid-19 everyday.

"if they go back to, you don't have to have a reason to vote absentee and everything's wide open.

Well that changes things.

Remember 50 percent of the vote was absentee in the primary.

I think you're going to see a record breaking election in the fall."

He says they've set the standard for the cleanliness of voting centers in the state of indiana.

They want to give everyone the peace of mind that voting in person is safe.... and if the state lifts restrictions on absentee voting.... the peace of mind that your vote will count.

"the past in some other counties have shown that .....there's fradulent activity.

I can assure you we're not going to have fradulent activity.

We have checks, checks, and more checks, and as long as i'm the clerk, we're not going to do that.

Either way, your vote is going to be secure."

Newman doesn't believe indiana will lift restrictions on absentee voting for november.

He says people are passionate about voting in-person around here... and their goal is to always encourage people coming out to vote....and feel safe doing so.

"i think it's setting a precedent.

The election must go on.

With or without covid.

And we still have to go about doing the election in the right way.

We still have a majority of people in vigo county that want to vote in person.

We'll continue to do whatever we need to do to make the polls work.

We're going to set the standard and example for the rest of the state."

Again...newman says these plans are fluid...but they are prepared for every scenario no matter what's decided for november's general election.

Reporting live in the newsroom i'm dominic miranda news 10 it was a beautiful day to be outside..

But the storm team is but the to be outside..