Bartholomew County saw higher turnout for the Nov. 3 presidential election than most counties in the state, according to the final election turnout report that state election officials released.
On Tuesday, Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson announced that 65% of registered voters — 3,068,542 out of the state’s 4,751,708 registered voters — cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election, which was the highest turnout in nearly 30 years.
Bartholomew County, however, saw higher even higher turnout, with 69% of registered voters casting ballots, according to local records.
That comes out to 36,673 of 53,434 registered voters, which was the highest turnout since 1992, when Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot were on the ballot.
“I think that just speaks volumes about our community and the engagement that we have locally,” said Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps.
In 2016 and 2012, voter turnout in Indiana was 58%, while turnout was 62% in 2008, Lawson said. More Hoosiers ever before cast ballots in this year’s general election, more than in 2008, 2012 or 2016.
“We continue to see that candidates and issues drive turnout,” Lawson said in a statement. “Presidential elections tend to have higher turnout rates. That held true this year with 65% of Hoosiers turning out to vote, the highest percentage we’ve seen since 1992.”
The announcement from Indiana election officials came as states have begun certifying their results from the Nov. 3 presidential election in the run-up to the Electoral College meeting in mid-December, The Associated Press reported.
So far, at least 16 states have certified their results, according to wire reports. Florida is the only one of the four most populous states to certify. Deadlines are early next month for the others: California, Texas and New York.
All states must certify before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and any challenge to the results must be resolved by Dec. 8.
Vote certification at the local and state level is typically a ministerial task that gets little notice, occurring after local election officials have conducted audits to ensure their vote tallies are accurate, according to wire reports.
That changed this year with Trump’s refusal to concede and his attempts to overturn the results of the election through a fusillade of legal challenges and attempts to manipulate the certification process in battleground states he lost, according to wire reports.
Bartholomew County election officials, for their part, certified the local election results on Nov. 13 and submitted them to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office on Nov. 16, Phelps said.
The documentation that election officials submitted included all vote totals — including election day votes, absentee in-person votes, absentee-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots and military and overseas ballots — voting locations, number of poll workers, voting equipment used and any issues experienced, Phelps said.
In addition, local election officials uploaded a breakdown of the results in all 66 precincts in the county and a signed document from the Bartholomew County Election Board that officially certified the 2020 election results, Phelps said.
There were no requests for a recount, Phelps said.
“Once everything was submitted, that kind of put an end to what had to be done for the presidential (election),” he said.
To certify the local results, the Bartholomew County Election Board reviewed voting machine counts to verify they matched the check-ins on the poll pads and examined all forms from the poll workers at each vote center to make sure they were completed properly, Phelps said.
One provisional ballot was issued in Bartholomew County on Election Day after a voter showed up at the polls without a valid photo ID, Phelps said.
That individual was allowed to cast a ballot, but it was set aside and not officially counted until the voter could show the election board proper identification.
Election rules allow voters 10 days after the election to show a local election board a valid photo ID.
“The voter did bring their ID in to show the board within the 10 days after the election so it was counted,” Phelps said.
Fifteen absentee ballots were not counted because they arrived by mail after the noon deadline on Election Day, Phelps said.
Overall, Phelps characterized the election as “nothing but a success.”
“This was a record turnout statewide, as well as a record turnout for Bartholomew County,” Phelps said. “All of the hard work of poll workers, election staff, and voters getting out in record- setting droves made this election nothing but a success during a global pandemic.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Where to learn more” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
The complete 2020 general election turnout and absentee chart with voter statistics for each of Indiana’s 92 counties can be viewed online at enr.indianavoters.in.gov/site/index.html.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
