By Andy East
Bartholomew County voters continued to turn out in historic numbers at the former Carson’s store at FairOaks Mall to vote early in person for the Nov. 3 presidential election — with around 45 voters still in line when the polls closed at 5 p.m. Friday.
The last voter on Friday night cast her ballot at 5:45 p.m., election officials said.
A total of 922 voters showed up Friday at the former Carson’s store at FairOaks Mall, an all-time record at this point during the early voting period.
Friday’s total raised the weekly total to 4,408 votes cast and the nine-day total to 7,475 votes cast since early in-person voting started on Oct. 6, said Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps.
Last week, a total of 3,066 votes were cast in early voting at the mall.
Additionally, a total of 5,141 Bartholomew County voters had cast ballots through the mail as of Friday afternoon, raising the overall vote total to 12,783 with 18 days to go before Election Day — a record for this point of the early voting period.
In other words, nearly one-quarter of registered voters in Bartholomew County have already voted with more than two weeks to go before the fall election.
By comparison, a total of 2,970 total votes had been cast at the same point in 2016, 1,311 in 2012 and 1,145 in 2008, according to county records.
For more on this story, see Sunday’s Republic.
