Mike Wolanin | The Republic Andrea Orben votes at Donner Center on Election Day in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023.
Early voting for the May 7 primary continued this week, with 241 people casting ballots in-person at Donner Center in Columbus from Monday to Thursday, according to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office.
Overall, 464 people had voted early in-person at Donner Center when the polls closed Thursday, or little less than 1% of registered voters, said Bartholomew County Elections Administrator Taylor Seagraves. Additionally, county election officials have sent out 479 absentee-by-mail ballots as of Friday.
By comparison, 321 people voted early in-person on just the first day of early voting during the 2020 primary.
So far, county election officials have characterized turn-out for the primary as “a little slower than what we thought.”
“For a primary, it’s a little slower than what we thought, but usually we see a pretty good uptick in the last two weeks,” Seagraves said. “So, the next two weeks we are hopeful to see an uptick in (turnout).”
Early in-person voting for the primary will continue weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Donner Center, 739 22nd St., through May 3, according to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office.
Early in-person voting also will be held the two Saturdays before the primary — April 27 and May 4 — from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Donner Center and the Bartholomew County Government Office Building, and 8 a.m. to noon at Donner Center on May 6, the day before the election.
Because it is a primary, voters must choose either the Republican ballot or the Democratic ballot. It is not possible to vote for candidates in both parties. The winners in the primary will secure their party’s nomination to run for office in the general election this fall.
