My ballot is in, and I just want to make sure it gets counted now. I’m 100 percent positive that the Marion County Election Board is up to the task of running an efficient and fair election, and I know my vote will matter. You should have the same confidence.

Marion County Clerk Myla Eldridge is sounding the alarm bell early. State laws have changed since the 2012 election, and it will be a rather slow process to count absentee ballots and get those results tabulated and reported. Clerk Eldridge and the Election Board have ten days to get everything done and certified, but we’ve become so used to everything being done on the night of the election. In lower turnout elections, that’s easy. Thanks to those law changes, Marion County and Lake County must count absentee ballots at a central location rather than the old way of couriering out the ballots to the individual precincts and having the ballots counted in each precinct. Now, it takes many pollworkers many hours to county the record number of absentee and early voting ballots.

All of these new rules were buried in the details of the omnibus Senate Enrolled Act 621 (2013) championed by Senator R. Michael Young. That’s the gem of legislation that removed the City-County Council’s four at-large seats, reduced the influence of the City-County Council, and gave the Mayor of Indianapolis unprecedented power over aspects of the budget and key appointments. Young’s version of the bill passed over the strenuous objection of neighborhood groups, political experts, and even Governor Mike Pence who signed the bill despite his own reservations about what was in it.

So, when the hand-wringing begins in a tight race statewide, and the results are not yet in from Marion County because the Election Board’s workers are working their butts off to get the absentee ballots counted, don’t blame Myla Eldridge or the Election Board.

Blame Mike Young.

In fact, just go ahead and replace him with Phil Webster. A teacher and coach in Decatur Township for over 40 years, Webster gets what representative government means. In fact, he could teach Young a thing or two about it. Mike Young doesn’t listen to his constituents, and Senate Enrolled Act 621 (2013) is just one example where he voted for his party loyalties over those in his Senate district.