By DAVE SCHULTZ
The Wells County Election Board will wait until February or perhaps March to decide how it will handle the primary and general elections in 2023.
This is the year for municipal elections, but in terms of the management of those elections, most of the attention is on Bluffton and Ossian.
Four years ago, County Clerk Beth Davis said the days for early voting at the courthouse were reduced from four weeks (what it would be in a countywide election) to two weeks. Not only that, if there is no contested election in Ossian, only the two vote centers in Bluffton — First Presbyterian Church and the Wells Community Center at the 4-H Park – would be used for the 2023 elections.
The board — Davis, Roy Johnson, and Larry Sell – will meet again in February, and a decision on the vote plan could be made then. However, Davis said, it could also wait until March.
In other business:
• The board formally entered into its minutes the appointment of two men to offices — James Brewer to replace Troy Smith on the Jefferson Township Board and Chandler Gerber to replace Roger Thornton as the District 1 member of the Bluffton Common Council.
• The board also certified its election equipment and signed an affidavit of voter list maintenance.
• The board also noted that Rita Knowles had resigned from the Poneto Town Council, effective Jan. 1.
• Johnson was chosen to again serve as the board’s chairman.
daves@news-banner.com
