If you are waiting until Tuesday to cast your vote for county officials, congressmen and president, expect to wait in line with hundreds of other residents.
Johnson County Clerk Sue Anne Misiniec expects 50 percent of the county’s registered voters, or more than 52,000 people, to cast ballots by the end of Election Day on Tuesday, she said. If the turnout is as high as expected, expect long lines at most of the county’s 21 vote centers.
“People need to understand: if they wait to vote until Election Day, they’re going to wait in line,” Misiniec said.
But in anticipation of a busy Election Day, officials are tweaking vote centers to try to move residents through the lines quicker, she said.
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The historically busier vote centers — Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Mount Pleasant Christian Church and White River branch of the Johnson County Public Library in the Center Grove area and Jonathan Byrd’s, Greenwood Christian Church, Community Church of Greenwood and Vineyard Community Church in Greenwood — will have two check-in lines, more workers and additional machines to get people through the voting process faster.
The most popular vote centers will have twice as many election workers signing in voters, checking their identification, giving voters either the Republican or Democratic ticket and assisting with technical issues.
Misiniec anticipates more residents will cast their ballots this year since the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees have not been decided yet. Typically, a clear frontrunner has been announced a month or two before the Indiana primary election.
Because of the importance of the election, Misiniec is hoping for at least 10 percent of registered voters will vote early. Residents started voting as early as April 5.
As of Friday, more than 8,000 people, or about 7.7 percent, have voted early. Four vote centers are open across the county until 3 p.m. today for early voting. Voters can still cast their votes at the Johnson County Courthouse until noon on Monday.
The highest primary election voter turnout in Johnson County in recent years was in 2008, with 38 percent of voters heading to the polls. At the time, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama and former U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton were running against one another for the Democratic nomination.
The number of registered voters in Johnson County has grown by about 13 percent since then, with more than 104,000 residents able to vote in this election.
This is the first election in which more than 100,000 residents are registered to vote.
