TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO-WAWV) — There’s growing anticipation surrounding the Terre Haute mayoral race between Republican incumbent Mayor Duke Bennett and Democrat challenger Brandon Sakbun and preparation for the municipal election has been underway for quite some time.

“We start planning for this election as soon at the last one was over, said Brad Newman, Vigo County Clerk.

Newman says the upcoming municipal election is one of the smaller elections when compared to the presidential and mid-terms, but that doesn’t diminish the importance, especially in terms of security.

He says the network, that transmits voting information is not open to the internet. He says Vigo County uses an outside contractor called FireEye which is a cybersecurity solution designed to protect election infrastructure. He says the county has used it for several years and was established, when Connie Lawson was Secretary of State.

Newman says security also goes beyond the FireEye network, it also includes how ballots are
counted, transported and numerous several checks and balance and he’s confident in the system cannot be penetrated.

“Because of the fact that we have all these levels of security in place, our elections are as
solid as they come, said Newman.

Newman says his office also works closely with candidates and he says both Mayor Bennett
and Brandon Sakbun have reached out with questions. He says it’s important for his to be
unbiased, so each candidate is given the same information.

“Duke and Brandon have both been very easy to work with, said Newman. They want to see the precincts, they want to see the numbers from past elections, they’re just doing their homework.”

He says both candidates have wanted information about like elections

“That’s one of the things I was impressed that both of them had asked, you know
because of Covid and some other things that had happened, they want to see 3 or 4 elections
so we pull the information and that’s just smart, smart on both their parts, Newman said.

Newman says he would really like to see a good turnout from the public and he encourages voters to take advantage of early voting. He also says there’s a real need for poll workers, especially younger peo