More Johnson County voters cast ballots before Election Day this year than the total number of voters in the last midterm election, which has local election officials expecting a similarly high turnout today.
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at 20 vote centers across the county. Voters should expect long lines, Johnson County Clerk Sue Ann Misiniec said. But if the line you’re in is too long, ask poll workers if they know of any nearby vote centers with shorter wait times. They are now able to see live wait times at all vote centers, she said.
“Just drive south,” Misiniec said. “Those sites are never near the volume of the places up in Greenwood. The Edinburgh Public Library is a very small place, but they are usually not overwhelmed. They run people through. Anything south of Franklin is going to be your best bet.”
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryA line formed around the Johnson County Courthouse before the doors opened at 8:30 a.m. Monday — the last day for early voting. Voters continued to join the line outside until after noon, when the line was cut off. Within a four-hour window on Monday, 497 voters cast ballots.
Voters continued to cast ballots for nearly two hours after the poll closed because anyone in line when the polls close is allowed to vote, which is also true today.
Nearly 24,000 people voted early in Johnson County, bringing the turnout to 23 percent before Election Day. Overall turnout in the 2016 presidential election was 63 percent. Turnout in the 2014 midterm election was 24 percent.
Johnson County is notorious for low voter turnout. In the 2015 primary and general elections, fewer than 10 percent of registered voters cast ballots, making it one of the worst in the state. Johnson County had the fifth lowest voter turnout of Indiana’s 91 counties in the 2015 municipal election. Municipal elections overall bring out fewer voters.
“Big,” Misiniec said when asked to predict Election Day turnout. “From what happened this morning — that’s what I’m basing it on — I expect a big turnout.”
Overall, she’s predicting a 50 percent voter turnout, which would be significantly higher than the last midterm election, but not as high as the 2016 presidential election.
Some Indiana counties decided to open additional vote centers today based on early voting turnout, but Johnson County will not, Misiniec said.
“I don’t think it’d be fair to try to open other places and people not know about it,” she said.
Misiniec urges voters to vote earlier rather than later today. She anticipates voting will continue well past when the polls close, but the lines will be marked at 6 p.m. and no one else will be allowed in, she said.
Other central Indiana counties saw a similar early voting trend this year.
About 29 percent of Hancock County’s registered voters voted early, which didn’t surprise Clerk Marcia Moore, who does not expect a busy Election Day, she said.
More Hancock County residents voted early in the 2016 presidential election than did on Election Day, and she expects a similar trend this year, she said.
“Personally, I would be surprised (by a big Election Day turnout). I’ve watched this for a long time. The people who vote are the same people who always vote. We don’t see fresh faces,” Moore said. “But I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong.”
Nearly a quarter of Morgan County’s registered voters had cast ballots by Monday, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
In Bartholomew County, more than 22 percent of voters had cast ballots. On the first day of early voting, the county voted four times the number of people who voted on the first day in the last midterm, election officials said.
About 20 percent of Hendricks County’s registered voters had already cast ballots; 16 percent of Hamilton County’s registered voters had; and 13 percent of Shelby County’s registered voters had voted in advance of Election Day.
Overall, about 15 percent of registered voters across the state had cast ballots before Monday.
Several other states are seeing an unusually high turnout for a midterm election as well.
“It’s nationwide,” Misiniec said.
“People are just fired up and I honestly cannot get a good feel for why.”
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Get the latest vote totals tonight and see what is happening at vote centers all day on the Daily Journal’s website at dailyjournal.net.
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