Tuesday’s primary election drew a robust turnout of voters in Jennings County, election officials said.
“Every election is different but this turnout is higher than usual. We had a 37.93 percent of the possible voters turn out,” said Jennings County Clerk Mary Dorsett Kilgore as she watched a steady stream of poll workers carry-in their precinct’s voting records.
Of the county’s 18,716 registered voters, 7,099 cast ballots in the primary.
In addition to the turnout, election officials were pleased that the election process didn’t have any serious hiccups and all the results were officially recorded before 9 p.m.
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“Everything went smoothly, and there was absolutely no drama,” Kilgore said.
While electronic machines and computerized counting methods have simplified the processing of election results, the Jennings County Clerk’s office is trying to find ways to make it easier for voters to cast their ballots.
“Counties around us are making changes like the central voting system and we are looking at that, too,” said Josh Proctor, first deputy in the clerk’s office.
“But we are a smaller county with less resources and it will be more difficult for us to initiate. We are looking at methods to improve things. We won’t have time to make changes before the November elections, but we are looking at possibilities for the future.”
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Jennings County primary
President
Republican
Jeb Bush; 38
Ben Carson; 56
Chris Christie; 5
Ted Cruz; 1,470
Carly Fiorina; 8
John R. Kasich; 221
Rand Paul; 19
Marco Rubio; 22
Donald J. Trump; 3,361
Democrat
Hillary Clinton; 837
Bernie Sanders; 921
U.S. Senator
Republican
Marlin A. Stutzman; 845
Todd Young; 3,974
Democrat
Baron Hill; 1,537
Governor
Republican
Michael R. Pence; 3,919
Democrat
John R. Gregg; 1,447
U.S. Representative 6th District
Republican
Charles “Chuck” Johnson Jr.; 434
Luke Messer; 3,552
Jeff Smith; 658
Democrat
Danny Basham; 413
George Thomas Holland; 254
Bruce W. Peavler; 152
Ralph Spelbring; 143
Barry Welsh; 428
State Representative District 67
Republican
Randy Fye; 1,064
Democrat
No candidate filed
State Representative District 69
Republican
Nancy L. Franke; 983
Jim Lucas; 2,626
Democrat
No candidate filed
County Treasurer
Republican
Donita “Shorty” Layman; 2,228
Kitty Shepherd; 2,473
Democrat
Sherri Poling Williams; 1,457
County Coroner
Republican
Eugene L. Rudicel; 4,490
Democrat
No candidate filed
County Surveyor
Republican
Charles “Chad” Ebinger; 2,828
Eric L. Meeks; 1,945
Democrat
Patty Franks; 1,435
County Commissioner District 1
Republican
David Kopitzke; 2,294
Robert “Bob” Willhite; 2,563
Democrat
Russell “Whitey” Richardson; 1,440
County Commissioner District 2
Republican
Jerry A. “JJ” Johnson; 1,638
Dave Lane; 2,941
Democrat
Max F. Hill; 1,418
County Council At-Large
Republican
(Vote for 3)
Paul A. Belding; 2,505
Mark Holwager; 2,442
Howard L. Malcomb; 2,972
David Woodall; 2,572
Democrat
(Vote for 3)
Jarrod Daeger; 1,018
Sandra L. “Sandy” Vance; 1,182
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