At BCS, several consumers pride themselves on exercising their voting rights. Many of them even get a chance to meet local candidates for public office.

In 2019, Republican Mayoral Candidate John Whicker, the former president and CEO of Bi-County Services, came to the agency to answer consumers’ questions about the political process. Nine consumers went to the polls that fall and helped elect Whicker mayor of Bluffton. Fifteen other consumers were registered to vote but were unable to do so because they live outside the city limits and there were no county elections that year.

Since then BCS consumers have voted in every primary as well as general elections. The numbers vary, depending on how newsworthy the races are. But some diehard voters, such as Mike Komosa and Gary Amburgey, never miss an election.

Tim Studebaker was excited when he went to the polls during the 2022 primary election because he got to meet Wells County Sheriff Scott Holliday. As a big fan of the police, Tim was thrilled to tell the sheriff he’d just cast his vote for him – and even more excited when he got to have his photo taken with Holliday.