Adler Cote Puts Halt to Vote Centers

The Hamilton County Election Board failed to get the unanimous vote needed to move the county from traditional precinct-based voting to a countywide Vote Center model. County Clerk Kathy Kreag Williams and Democratic appointee Greg Purvis voted in favor of the measure. Republican appointee Ray Adler cast the deciding vote against it.

Williams, who served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives and sponsored the original legislation that gave counties the option to adopt vote centers in 2006, has long championed vote centers. While many counties moved quickly, Williams waited until she believed Hamilton County was ready. “With our growth, to over 280,000 registered voters, it was the right fit at the right time,” Williams said. “We have been patient, worked through the process, and were at a point where it would have worked for us. It all came down to needing three votes and we were one short.”

Sixty-eight of Indiana’s 92 counties have already adopted the Vote Center model. The Allen County Election Board approved a similar proposal on Monday, Sept. 15. “I just think we should let Allen County go through it and see what problems they have,” Adler said. “We’re changing voting for hundreds of thousands of people and I want to make sure it’s not an experiment.”

Under Indiana law, moving to a Vote Center model requires approval from all three governing bodies: the Hamilton County Commissioners, the County Council, and the Election Board. Both the Commissioners and the seven-member Council voted unanimously in favor of the transition. Public sentiment in a recent countywide survey also suggested 60% of respondents were in favor of moving to the vote center model and 10 percent were indifferent.

“It’s disappointing because I know there was a lot of bipartisan support for the measure,” said Greg Purvis, the Democratic appointee to the Election Board. “I wish Mr. Adler had shared some of his concerns more openly. Maybe we could have worked through it. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to make sure this worked right just to have it go nowhere.”

Precinct-based voting will remain in place for the 2026 Primary and General Elections. Without the Vote Centers, Hamilton County will have to find polling locations for 15 new precincts for the 2026 election, bringing the total number of precincts to 235. The vote center model would have only required 57 locations.