Before sunrise, Republican Chuck Waggoner and Democrat Linda Coad reported to the Jennings County Courthouse to begin verifying and recording 2,650 Absentee ballots for the primary election.
Though members of opposing political parties, Waggoner and Goad were cheerfully exchanging gardening secrets as they sat amidst voting machines in an otherwise empty courtroom by the end of Tuesday.
“We kind of have to get along because we’ve been stuck together in this room since 5 a.m.,” laughed Waggoner.
Coad added, “We did our job and we did get it all done.”
Because of the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb moved Indiana’s Primary from May 5 to June 2. Holcomb also expanded the mail-in option to every Hoosier.
Prior to the election, many Indiana counties expressed concern that they would not be able to process all mail-in votes by the end of election day.
Soon after the polls officially closed at 6 p.m., Jennings County Clerk Amy Thompson confirmed that all of the county’s mail-in ballots had been verified, counted and included in the final vote total.
“With the pandemic and all, we weren’t too sure just what we should expect but really, this election wasn’t so very different,” Thompson said.
Over twice as many Republicans as Democrats showed up to vote. A total of 2,835 Republicans voted and only l,144 Democrats voted. Twenty-two percent of registered voters in Jennings County participated in the primary.
Floyd Bowman came out ahead in the Democratic race with 495 votes, besting Bill Elmore (358) and Jeff Galliher (255). Bowman will face Republican incumbent Robert (Bob) Willhite in November.
In the County Commissioner — District 2 race, Republican Shane Boswell earned the nomination, as he came out on top with 58 percent of the vote. He received 1,544 votes to James (Warren) Lucas’ 1,076.
Republican Tina Belding Brison edged Kitty Shepherd 1,412 to 1,293 for the treasurer nomination, and the surveyor nomination went to Republican Charles (Chad) Ebinger, as he topped Eric Meeks 1,683 to 1,010.
Republicans Howard Malcomb, Eugene “Gene” Rudicel, and David Woodall ran unopposed for the three county council at-large seats. Gary L Smith (Superior court) and Murielle “Ellie” S Webster Bright (Circuit court), both Republicans, also ran unopposed.
No Democrats filed in the primary for County Commissioner — District 2, treasurer, surveyor and the judges races.
In the race for the position of President of the United States, Joseph Biden collected 790 votes, but an additional 271 Democrat votes went to former candidates who are no longer running.
Gov. Holcomb will face Democrat Woodrow Myers this Fall.
With 723 votes, Jeannine Lake won a sizable victory over fellow Democrats George Holland and Barry Welsh. Lake will run against incumbent District 6 Congressman Greg Pence in the fall.
Incumbent District 69 State Representative Republican Jim Lucas will face challenger Jeffrey W. Prewitt.
