A view of Shelby County Board of Elections building on East Court Street on Tuesday. The board issued a statement on Tuesday regarding a voter registration event scheduled for Thursday at the Historic Sidney Theatre.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
The Shelby County Board of Elections issued a statement on Tuesday to clarify its previous role in an event scheduled Thursday and to inform the public of its decision to pull out completely.
The Sidney Daily News ran an article on Saturday’s print edition entitled “Voter registration event to be held at Historic Sidney Theatre Thursday.”
The article stated that the event is “a collaboration between realtor Kevin Jones, the Shelby County Board of Elections, and the Shelby County Democratic Party.”
The statement, which was issued by Board of Elections chairman Dan Cecil, said that while Board of Elections staff are encouraged to provide their expertise at these kinds of events, this level of collaboration, involvement, and promotion of an event with a single political party was never discussed, nor approved, by the Shelby County Board of Elections. Board Members never became aware of the details of this event until they read Saturday’s article.
The Board of Elections voted Tuesday not to participate in this event because it had not been discussed with the full Board. Further, the advertising, once the Board became aware of it, makes it appear that the Shelby County Board of Elections and the Shelby County Democratic Party are equal partners in sponsoring. This event and jeopardizes the bipartisan nature of the Board’s work.
In lieu of participating in the event, the Shelby County Board of Elections Office will be open from 5 to 8:30 p.m. this Thursday, Sept. 19, to provide all the services (and more) that they would have provided at the event. Participants in the event are welcomed to travel a few blocks to the Board of Elections at 230 East Court Street to take advantage of its employees’ elections expertise.
Citizens will be able to register to vote, check and update their voter registration status, verify their polling location, and much more.
Equipment used at Polling Locations and at the Board of Elections will be set up for demonstrations if people are interested in seeing them in operation. BOE personnel will be able to answer any questions citizens might have about the elections process.
Anyone interested is welcome to join the Board of Elections from 5 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday for first-hand information about voting and voter registration.
