With three days left in the early voting period for Tuesday’s city-wide primary, election officials say there is low voter turnout.
By the end of the day Wednesday, 777 people had cast ballots, compared to 1,936 on the Wednesday before the 2015 primary election, according to data from the Bartholomew County Clerk’s office.
Of the 777 ballots, 580 were walk-in voters, 121 were mail-in ballots and 76 were collected by the travel board, which goes to assisted living centers to give residents the chance to vote.
“It’s been very quiet,” said Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps. “I think a lot of it’s due to not having a lot of contested races.”
There are four contested races on the Republican primary ballot — including the GOP nominations for mayor, city council at-large, city council races in District 1 and District 3. There are also four uncontested races on the GOP primary ticket — city clerk treasurer, city council District 2, city council District 4 and city council District 5 — and no contested races on the Democratic ticket.
Because it is a primary, voters must select the Republic ticket or Democratic ticket. It is not possible to vote on both sets of ballots, Phelps said.
“Once the voter moves to the polling machine, the voter cannot go back and choose their party affiliation,” he said.
Currently, 29,201 people are registered to vote in the primary. However, Phelps said he only anticipates around 10 percent of registered voters, 2,500 to 3,000 people, will actually cast their ballots, the lowest overall turnout since 2007, when 1,920 votes were cast.
In 2015, 7,885 voters — 26 percent of eligible voters — cast ballots in the primary. It was the highest turnout since at least 1995, according to the clerk’s office.
Phelps said he expects to have absentee results in by 6 p.m on Tuesday and the final results sometime between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. that night.
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Early voting:
Today, registered voters may vote at:
Bartholomew County Courthouse, downtown Columbus, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Donner Center, 739 22nd St., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday:
Bartholomew County Courthouse, downtown Columbus, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Donner Center, 739 22nd St., 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Monday:
Bartholomew County Courthouse only, 8 a.m. to noon
Tuesday’s primary
Voting centers will be open for the Tuesday primary from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the following locations:
- Flintwood Wesleyan Church, 5300 25th St.
- St. Johns Masonic Lodge, 4131 Rocky Ford Road
- Grace Lutheran Church, 3201 Central Ave.
- Donner Center, 739 22nd St.
- Bible Church of Columbus, 3010 10th St.
- The Commons, 300 Washington St.
- German American Bank, 2310 W. Jonathan Moore Pike
- Terrace Lake Church, 4260 W. County Road 200S
Visit indianavoters.in.gov to check your voter registration and see who is on your ballot.
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