Published: August 14, 2008 12:20 pm      

Voters will decide fate of Clark County township assessor

The Clark County Election Board approved a measure to place a referendum on the general election ballot this fall. The referendum, recently certified by the commissioners, will give Jeffersonville Township residents the option to choose whether they want to keep Township Assessor Vicki Conlin or allow County Assessor Vicky Kent Haire to take over the assessing duties for the township.

Haire already has been placed in charge of all the property tax assessments for the rest of the county, including the 10 county trustee assessor’s duties, and the Charlestown and Silver Creek Township assessor’s duties.

The change in assessment authority is the result of House Bill 1001, which mandated that all townships with less than 15,000 parcels of real property be under the umbrella of a single countywide office. Only Jeffersonville was exempted, with the bill mandating that voters decide.

The question — “Should the assessing duties of the elected township assessor in the township be transferred to the county assessor?” — will be placed on all Jeffersonville Township ballots.

The last time a referendum was placed on the ballot in Clark County was over riverboat gaming in 2006, which eventually passed.

Floyd County will also have a referendum on the general election ballot so voters can decide whether to keep New Albany Township Assessor Barbara Sillings or transfer those duties to County Assessor Brenda Egge.



In other business:

• The county voter registration office has registered and updated about 5,300 voters since the primary election in May. Election board members were amazed at the interest, and are hoping to see voter turnout for the general election exceed the 40 percent turnout from the primary — though that was still a much larger number than usual.

• The filing deadline for candidates running for public office in the general election is Aug. 22 by noon. The deadline to withdraw from the election is Aug. 25 by noon.

• A task force set up to deal with polling errors that occurred during the primary election in May will meet for the first time on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. The task force includes the members of the election board, Commissioner Mike Moore, Councilwoman Barbara Hollis, and attorneys Dan Moore and Scott Lewis.

Jerry White, who lost his bid for the District 6 seat on the Greater Clark County School Board to incumbent Robbie Valentine, will also be a part of the task force. White said that on election day the wrong ballots were given to voters and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote in the school board race.

The problems at those polling places where Clarksville Community Schools and Greater Clark Schools vote are the main reason for the formation of the task force.

• The election board will conduct tests of the voting machines to ensure they are in working order on election day. Two machines were damaged during the primary, one of which was intentionally damaged, according to Clerk-Treasurer Barbara Haas.

The board plans on numbering the voting machines for the general elections in order to keep track of the locations if any are damaged.