Mike Wolanin | The Republic A view of the vote center at NexusPark on the first day of early voting in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022.
COLUMBUS, Ind. — Early voting for the Nov. 8 midterm election has continued to outpace turnout during the previous midterm election four years ago, local election officials said.
As of Monday, a total of 2,566 voters in Bartholomew County had cast ballots at NexusPark, according to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office. By comparison, 1,724 voters had voted early in-person at the same point during the early voting period for the 2018 midterm election.
An additional 134 people had voted at NexusPark by noon on Tuesday.
Demand for absentee-by-mail ballots also is up this year compared to 2018, local election officials said. As of Monday, the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office had mailed 1,771 absentee by mail ballots to local voters, up from 1,294 at this point during the 2018 midterm.
A total of 835 completed absentee-by-mail ballots had already been returned to the clerk’s office as of the end of the day Monday. In addition, local election officials received “a large amount” of completed absentee-by-mail ballots on Tuesday but had not processed them by press time.
In total, at least 3,535 Bartholomew County voters had already cast ballots either in-person or absentee by mail as of noon Tuesday, or roughly 6.6% of registered voters.
“We are averaging about 295 voters each day at NexusPark, and that’s very, very good turnout,” said Bartholomew County Clerk Shari Lentz. “Yesterday, we had 317.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
