Early in-person voting in Bartholomew County for the upcoming presidential election has started to pick up over the past few days as voters look to cast their ballots during the final stretch before Election Day.
A total of 3,274 Bartholomew County voters cast ballots early in-person from Friday to Monday, while a total of 1,800 voters have voted absentee by mail so far, raising the total number of votes cast to 15,451 as of Monday — or roughly 29% of registered voters.
Friday has been the busiest day at the polls so far during the early voting period, with 1,162 people casting ballots at Donner Center, according to Bartholomew County Clerk Shari Lentz.
On Saturday, a total of 1,023 people voted at Donner Center and the Bartholomew County Government Office Building in seven hours, and an additional 1,089 voters cast ballots at Donner Center on Monday.
There were about 20 people waiting to vote at Donner Center Tuesday morning when the polls opened at 8 a.m., Lentz said. So far, wait times have not been long, she said.
Overall, a total of 13,651 Bartholomew County voters had voted early in-person as of Monday. By comparison, 14,247 Bartholomew County voters had cast ballots at the same point in the 2020 election and 7,473 in 2016.
“We’re still seeing those big numbers come in, and that’s wonderful,” Lentz said. “The goal of a vote center is to get half of the voters to vote early and half on Election Day, and that kind of disperses the voters, and so there are not as long of lines on Election Day. It looks like that is coming along really well, and still, at Donner, there are not long lines at all.”
Should the pace of voting seen in recent days continue through Monday, and if all of the 579 outstanding absentee-by-mail ballots are returned to election officials, the county could expect to see about 42% of registered voters cast their ballots before Election Day.
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.
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 noon onMonday.
Early in-person voting will also be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday 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 for those contests on their ballots.
