Bartholomew County election officials have seen higher-than-expected turnout for early in-person voting for the June 2 presidential primary.
A total of 1,557 votes were cast at Donner Center, 739 22nd St., during the first four days of early voting, said Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps.
Friday was the busiest of the first four days of early in-person voting, with 445 ballots cast, followed by Wednesday with 419 people voting and 372 on Thursday. On Tuesday, the first day of early in-person voting, 321 people voted.
Early in-person voting will continue Monday from 8 a.m. to noon.
“I anticipated around 1,500 would vote there,” Phelps said. “…It looks like Donner is heading toward 2,000.”
There has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding in-person turnout for year’s primary due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an expanded vote-by-mail effort.
As of Friday afternoon, a total of 7,445 Bartholomew County voters had cast their ballots through the mail, Phelps said. There are still around 1,501 mail-in ballots that have yet to be returned.
Bartholomew County election officials must receive the ballots by noon on Tuesday for them to be counted, Phelps said. Voters can drop off their own mail-in ballots in person at the courthouse until the deadline.
In total, voters requested 8,919 mail-in ballots — the most ever requested for an election in history, Phelps said.
County election officials said they have received so many mail-in ballots that they had to purchase additional filing cabinets to store them all.
Phelps estimated that more than 8,000 mail-in ballots and an additional 2,000 in-person votes will likely be cast during the early voting period for the primary.
“It is certainly encouraging,” he said.
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The last chance for voters to cast their ballots early for the primary is Monday from 8 a.m. to noon at Donner Center, 739 22nd St.
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