Last week the Marshall County Election Board: County Clerk Deb VanDeMark, Democratic representative Rick Huff and Republican representative Sean Surrisi meet and discussed a restriction for one member during the May Primary election.
VanDeMark told Sean Surrisi when the voting process is going on he will have to avoid it due to the fact that his wife, Janette Surrisi is on the ballot in the May 5th Primary for Marshall Circuit Court Judge.
The clerk reached out to the state for clarification and said as for as the rest of his responsibilities he is a board member and will be able to do board functions but can’t do any canvassing of votes and he shouldn’t be at the vote centers on Election Day.
Surrisi said he was sorry to put more work on them especially counting the absentee ballots but he understands the restrictions and is in favor of them.
In other business the County Clerk told the members she budgeted four absentee voter teams in this year’s budget. She said in the Municipal Election they only had two teams one that traveled while the other stayed in the office to vote walk-in voters and handle the mail. VanDeMark said this election is going to be big and with experience from 2016 the teams working were trying to keep up with the mail and handle the walk-in voters. She said many times they were lined up clear to the door to vote. The extra team will help take care of the mail. This will require another Democrat and Republican to fill this fourth team. These are paid positions and the Election Board will select the team members.
