COLUMBUS, Ind. — Voting in the Columbus city election continued at a leisurely pace as of Tuesday afternoon.
As of 1:40 p.m., 2,196 people had cast ballots on Election Day, according to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office.
In addition, 2,877 people voted early in-person, and local election officials have received 388 completed absentee-by-mail ballots.
In total, 5,461 people have cast ballots in one way or another so far for Tuesday’s municipal election. By comparison, 7,306 people voted during the 2019 municipal election.
Donner Center has seen its fair share of visits from city council candidates. As of about 1 p.m., Jerone Wood, Grace Kestler, Kent Anderson, Chris Bartels and Chris Rutan had all congregated in front of the voting center.
“The Democrats are definitely winning the food fight,” Anderson joked. “I appreciate all the donuts they brought.”
“The beauty of any election locally is that we’re a small enough community where we are truly bipartisan,” said David Burnett, father of at-large candidate Josh Burnett. He added that there are great candidates from both sides of the aisle.
As of 1:30 p.m., about 450 votes had been cast at Donner Center, said Republican inspector Melissa Hill.
“It’s been steady but not busy,” she said.
She noted that there have been a fair amount of people who showed up only to find out they couldn’t vote because they didn’t live in the city. There were also some individuals who were “perturbed” to learn that the governor’s race isn’t until next year and at least one person who had expected to be able to vote for a new president, she said.
“Next year’s going to be a doozy,” Hill said.
On the city election ballot:
Mayor: Republican Mary Ferdon vs. Independent Sean Burton
Clerk: Republican Luann Welmer vs. Democrat Quisha Jackson
Council at-large: Republicans Chris Rutan, Alex Engelbert and Josh Burnett vs. Democrats Grace Kestler, Tom Dell and Paul Hoffman
Council District 1: Republican Christopher Bartels vs. Democrat Nick Slabaugh
Council District 2: Republican Victoria Griffin vs. Democrat Elaine Hilber
Council District 3: Republican Sue Norman-Chapple vs. Democrat Jerone Wood
Council District 4: Republican Frank Miller vs. Democrat Keegan Hill
Council District 5: Republican Kent Anderson vs. Democrat Eric Riddle
Council District 6: Republican Jay Foyst vs. Democrat Bryan Munoz
