Almost 550 people had cast early ballots for Porter County’s municipal primaries by Thursday afternoon, Clerk Jessica Bailey told the election board during a meeting that day.

Early voting continues from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at locations in Portage, Chesterton, Valparaiso and Hebron, on weekdays and the two Saturdays before the election, April 27 and May 4, before concluding at noon on May 6, Bailey said.

The board voted to run the county’s new high-speed ballot counter for those ballots at 6 p.m., May 7, the date of the primary.

Bailey said she plans to have a team of eight people, four from each party, report at 3 p.m. that day to open and back-fold the ballots in bipartisan teams so the ballots run smoothly in the machine.

The ballots in hand have already been sorted by precinct, she added.

During the November general election, before Bailey was elected as clerk, 18,000 absentee ballots were not sorted and were therefore unable to be delivered to the precincts to be counted that day.

Preliminary election tallies were three days late as a result, and county officials approved purchase of the high-speed counter, part of a $1.8 million upgrade in new election equipment, so the ballots could be counted at the county administration building.

“It counts roughly 300 ballots a minute,” Bailey said of the counter.

Board member David Bengs estimated there would be around 1,200 early and mail-in ballots to be counted, so it should be “a very quick process.”

Additionally, 11 elected officials or former candidates still have outstanding campaign finance reports, Bailey told the board. Another round of reports from current candidates is due at noon Monday.

Board attorney Monica Conrad will notify those with outstanding reports, including anyone who misses the Monday deadline for pre-primary reports, that reports are due to the clerk’s office by the end of the business day on May 16.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter.