Hundreds of people have continued to cast ballots each day at Donner Center for the upcoming presidential election, though turnout has dipped slightly below last week’s record-setting pace.
On Tuesday, 757 people cast ballots at Donner Center, bringing the total votes cast over the first six days of early in-person voting to 4,446, according to figures from the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office.
By comparison, a record 4,795 people had cast ballots early in-person at the same point during the 2020 election and 1,635 at the same point during the 2016 election.
A total of 179 people had voted at Donner Center as of 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, county election officials said.
“I thought this week might be a little lower because of fall break,” said Bartholomew County Clerk Shari Lentz. “I thought some people might be out of town and doing different activities … but we’re holding that number right around 600 to 700 voters (per day). We’re very pleased with that.”
At the same time, Lentz said wait times at Donner Center have been “just a couple of minutes.”
“We’re able to get people through very quickly,” she said.
Early in-person got off to a fast start last week, with a record-setting 972 people casting ballots on the first day of early in-person voting. That broke the previous record of 728 set on the first day of early in-person voting in the 2020 election and more than the combined turnout in Jackson and Johnson counties.
By comparison, 646 voters turned out in Johnson County on Tuesday, while Jackson County saw 291 voters, for a combined total of 931 ballots cast — even though those two counties have a combined 2.5 times the population of Bartholomew County.
Local election officials and party leaders have said that a high level of interest in the presidential race is likely fueling the high turnout so far, though local contests such as the BCSC school board races may also be driving people to go out and vote early.
“I think it’s a combination of things and just general excitement that this race has,” said Bartholomew County Democratic Party Chair Ross Thomas. “People have been following politics all year, maybe two years. And when the gates finally opened, I think people were eager to rush in.”
“I think if you take the combination of just traditionally more people vote in a presidential year, and what I think is pretty obvious that there’s a lot of interest and excitement about this (presidential) race, certainly on our side,” Thomas added.
Bartholomew County Republican Party Chair Luanne Welmer said she thinks the rush to vote early may be related to voters being “passionate about the presidential race,” though the school board and county council races also are drawing interest.
“I think that they just want to make sure that they get their vote counted,” Welmer said. “They don’t want, perhaps, to forget to vote or they might be traveling on (Election Day), but they are truly just passionate about the presidential race.
“From all of the phone calls that I’ve had at headquarters and all of the signs that have been requested, yes, (Trump) is the leading person to vote for,” Welmer added.
Lentz, for her part, said it is hard to say how early voting will evolve, though it generally increases as Election Day approaches.
“I thought maybe this week might be a little slower and then we’d see a big pickup next week,”Lentz said. “But it’s just hard to predict.”
Early voting
Early in-person voting for the Nov. 5 presidential election will continue at Donner Center, 739 22nd St., weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Monday, Nov. 4 at noon.
Early in-person voting will also be held the two Saturdays before Election Day — Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 — from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Donner Center and the Bartholomew County Government Office Building, 440 Third St.
Voters who want to cast a straight-ticket vote and are interested in voting for school board candidates and the Bartholomew County Council at-large race still need to manually select candidates on their ballots.
