Carroll County residents in Liberty, Jackson, Madison, Tippecanoe, Rock Creek and Deer Creek townships, 5,832 in all, will be given the opportunity to vote whether or not to allow the Delphi Community School Corporation to proceed with a planned project to renovate the high school and middle school. The building and refurbishing project could cost as much as $21 million. Known as a special election, the vote is a result of petitions filed requesting a referendum, or a public question, about the matter.

Mattox According to county clerk Nancy Mattox, the election board set voting for May 5 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in one polling place, St. Matthew's Lutheran Church across from the high school on US421. Absentee voting will begin on or around April 1 at the clerk's office on the second floor of the courthouse. A mobile voting machine will also be employed to assist those voters who are unable to visit the poll or the clerk's office.

Mattox said paper ballots will be used for absentee balloting after voting machines have been re-programmed by the manufacturer. On the day of the vote, three poll workers will be stationed at the church as inspector, judge and poll clerk.

Mattox said it could not be determined how much the special election will cost until after the machines have been programmed for the public question. She said because the cost of the election would be a county-wide expense and was not anticipated in the 2009 budget, a request for an additional appropriation from the general fund would have to be made to the county council before the date of the vote in order to pay for the public question.

Mattox said the wording of the question is under development by the election board.