Local News

Nearly 700 turn out on first day of early voting

October 7, 2020

Voters from all over Johnson County had already lined-up for more than 30 minutes when early voting opened Tuesday morning at the county courthouse.

Throughout the morning the line snaked from the county clerk’s office in the courthouse basement to the sidewalk along Court Street in Franklin. In the afternoon the line was much shorter but still stretched outside the courthouse.

“Usually we have a steady stream of people, but never like what we have out there right now,” Johnson County Clerk Trena McLaughlin said at 9:18 a.m.

McLaughlin was expecting higher-than-normal turnout, but she didn’t expect to see quite so many. As of 3:05 p.m. Tuesday, 670 voters had cast their ballots.

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The turnout fits into what the clerk’s office has been anticipating and seen already: this will be a record-breaking election.

Vote-by-mail applications are up for the general election and have already gone past the record number of requests set in the primary, McLaughlin said.

“In the primary, we mailed out almost 12,000 ballots. We have surpassed that now, we are at 13,000. And we still have 16 days to request an absentee ballot.”

Currently, the courthouse is the only early voting location open in the county. Additional vote centers in Franklin, Greenwood, Trafalgar and Edinburgh will begin early voting on Oct. 21.

Voters will have dozens of chances to vote early this month and in the first days of November at multiple locations across the county, with several vote centers to be open on Saturdays towards the end of the month.

As Johnson County has grown in recent years, lines on Election Day have increased along with the population. Many voters said they turned out early on Tuesday to avoid long lines on Nov. 3.

Whiteland mom Heather Lowry and her college-age sons Dalton and Landon were the first to cast ballots. The three woke up bright and early to cast their votes for President Donald Trump, they said.

“We want our voices heard. Our opinions matter,” Lowry said.

Voters on both sides of the aisle were eager to do their civic duty and do so early.

“I wanted to get it over with,” said Timothy Albritton of Franklin. “I’ve seen so many stories recently and I’m like, ‘OK it’s time to go vote.’”

Voters of all ages came out to cast their ballots on Tuesday. For older voters, being among the first saves time and allows them to be on their feet for less time.

“We want to get it done so we don’t have to wait in line all day,” said Robin Wilson of White River Township. “We learned our lesson about long lines. In 2016 it was bad.”

With the high turnout on the first day and multiple contested races on the ballot, McLaughlin expects this election to meet or surpass voter turnout for the 2016 presidential election, she said.

“We are ready and we are excited for people to vote. And people are excited to vote. I think that shows that this will continue,” McLaughlin said.

In 2016 the turnout for Johnson County was 63%, which landed the county in the No. 8 spot for highest voter turnout in Indiana. That year, 36% of all votes were cast early.

In the June primary, 21.5% of county voters turned out, which was less than has been seen for a presidential primary in recent history, and half as many that turned out in the 2016 primary.

The primary election was unusual for other reasons, as well. Concerns over COVID-19 drove 11,400 Johnson County voters to request mail-in absentee ballots. Of those, 10,376 were returned and counted on the primary election day. About 2,000 voted in-person in the week leading up to the primary.

The clerk’s office and Election Board have established COVID-19 protocols that all poll workers follow to keep voters as safe as possible, McLaughlin said.

Between each voter, poll workers are sanitizing each stylus, iPad and voting machine. Disposable masks and hand sanitizer are available at each vote center.

Per Gov. Eric Holcomb’s mask order, masks are required while inside any public space. However, McLaughlin is not requiring poll workers to enforce the mask order. Instead, the workers are trained to offer a mask to any voter who does not bring their own, she said.

Poll workers are required to wear a mask and are asked health questions before they being each shift, McLaughlin said.

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Here is a look at when and where you can cast your ballot early:

Johnson County Courthouse, 5 E. Jefferson St., Franklin

8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday through Oct. 30

8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 24 and 31 (Saturdays)

8:30 a.m. to noon Nov. 2

Trafalgar Public Library, 424 S. Tower St., Trafalgar

10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 21-23 and Oct. 26-30.