By VICKI URBANIK

Not including any absentee ballots that came in the mail by today’s noon deadline, the total number of Porter County residents who voted early, or absentee, stood at 16,579 -- or just under 15 percent of all registered voters.

Election Day in Porter County appeared to be running smoothly this morning. Sundae Kubacki, Republican director of the Porter County Voter Registration Office, said her office had not received any major complaints or heard of any signficant glitches this morning. The main exception dealt with one precinct, where it was feared that the lateness of poll workers on site could have delayed the poll opening; however, Kubacki said the polling site opened on time at 6 a.m.

In response to problems in the primary, where phone lines were jammed and many polling places ran out of Democrat ballots, county election officials instituted a number of precautionary measures for today’s presidential election. These included adding phone lines, setting up a system in which poll workers can contact the Voter Registration office via cell phones, and ensuring that every precinct had a ballot for every registered voter.

The efforts seemed to be paying off this morning. Kubacki said that phone communications were running smoothly, and that most of the calls that were coming into the office were from voters who simply wanted to know where to vote.

County election officials urge the public to call the Hoosier Voter Hotline for their election day questions. The number is toll-free at 1-866-1-IN-VOTE (1-866-461-8683) or online at www.indianavoters.com

Click on “voter registration” to double check a registration, or “polling place” to check out where to vote.

Absentee, or early voting, now allows any registered voter to vote early without having to give a reason. Early voting in Indiana ended at noon on Monday. About an hour before the deadline, a long line was formed outside the County Administration Center in Valparaiso.

Anyone in line at noon was able to cast a vote. Kubacki said the process went fairly quickly, and the final early vote was cast at 1:05 p.m.

She said at one point, people had to wait about 45 minutes before they could vote, but Kubacki said that no one complained. Instead, many people thanked county election officials for offering the option to vote early. “Everyone was really wonderful,” she said.

All of the absentee votes were sent to their respective precincts this morning at 7:30 a.m. Poll workers were instructed to check off the names of those who cast an early vote in the poll book to ensure that no one would be able to cast a vote twice, Kubacki said.

In the event that someone who already voted attempts to vote again in person today, Kubacki said they will be refused, since the poll book  will show that they already voted. But if the poll workers were not able to record the absentee votes by the time the voter appeared in person, then their absentee vote will be spoiled if they, in fact, cast an in-person vote, she said.

Last week, Voter Registration officials dealt with computer and printing errors involving the printing of the poll books.

Kathy Kozuszek, the Democrat director of the Voter Registration Office, said the data that the office downloaded from the state’s voter database showed numbers of precincts that don’t exist. To remedy the problem, the incorrect poll book files had to be copied and  renamed with the correct precinct name on a CD or DVD, with county officials essentially compiling the poll book data from scratch due to corrupt files that locked up the county’s computers. Then the county encountered technical problems when the poll books did not print overnight as planned.

Kozuszek said correcting the poll books took staff over the course of four days and that on one day, employees worked during 24 hours straight. A spot check of the poll books before they were released to the poll workers for today’s election showed that they were in order, she said.

Posted 11/4/2008