By Jessica Kerman
May 07, 2008 10:06 pm
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ANDERSON — Tuesday’s primary had the highest voter turnout in Madison County of any primary since 1992.
Almost 40,000, or 43.4 percent, of the registered voters in Madison County voted in the primary. About 12 percent of the ballots, or 4,825, were absentee ballots.
“The Democrats came out because they had a presidential race,” Madison County Clerk Ludy Watkins said. “This is the first time in 40 years they’ve had a say in the presidential race.”
Statewide, more than 1.6 million ballots were cast on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. The Secretary of State’s office said it would not have official turnout numbers until Friday. However, in April, the office reported that 4.32 million people were registered to vote in Indiana, meaning the estimated turnout would be 37 percent for the state.
According to election results in the county, 77.4 percent of the ballots cast were for the Democratic primary.
“Barack Obama has been bringing people to the polls,” said Michael Frank, associate professor of political science at Anderson University. “There are people who are coming to the polls in particular who otherwise wouldn’t.”
Watkins said the county expects a large general election when there is a large primary turnout.
“But we can’t tell because we’ve not had a chance to pick a presidential candidate in Indiana in 40 years,” she said. “I would hope that the voters do not lose their enthusiasm.”
According to county election reports, the federal general election, which comes every four years, has brought more than 55 percent of voters to the polls in Madison County, many fueled by the presidential races.
Turnout in November might depend on who gets the Democratic nomination, Frank said. While Obama attracts the young voters and the black community, Clinton grabs the white, blue-collar workers.
“It’s really going to depend on how the campaign pans out,” he said. “I could see in one respect where some people might say John McCain isn’t a typical Republican, so some Republicans might be less likely to vote. You might see less Republicans, but more young voters, so turnout might be the same.”
Presidential races overshadowed the local elections such as school board races, county council and commissioners, Watkins said.
“It tends to put (those races) on the back burner, and that’s bad, too,” she said. “That’s not good, because there are county elections.”
However, Watkins said, she thought the county races would be more popular in November.
“I don’t think it will overshadow the presidential election, but I think it will be more prevalent,” she said.
Early results
By Tuesday morning, a few counties in Indiana still had not finished tallies and reports. Lake County, in particular, was delayed for hours because of the 11,000 absentee ballots it received.
However, in Madison County, everything went smoothly, Watkins said.
Madison County turned in its results to the state before 10 p.m., according to Election Director Mary Retherford. The first county to report to the state was Greene County, according to Bethany Derringer of the Secretary of State’s office.
Watkins said the county was able to finish relatively quickly because of well-trained poll workers.
“I feel like we had excellent poll workers,” she said. “They just handled everything so well. People tell me, ‘You’re doing a good job,’ but it’s the people who I’ve surrounded myself with that’s doing a good job. These people have given up their time, they’ve given up their day. They came in and checked in and everything just went very, very smoothly. These are dedicated people, and I just appreciate them. All the people who go to the polls should appreciate them.”
Provisional ballots
Madison County received 37 provisional ballots on Tuesday.
“That’s twice as many as we’ve ever had,” Watkins said.
On April 28, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed Indiana’s voter identification law that requires voters to show a state- or federal-issued ID before casting a ballot.
In South Bend, 12 elderly nuns were turned away because they did not have proper identification.
However, that case was not true for Madison County.
“No voter is turned away,” Watkins said.
Instead, people without an identification can vote with a provisional ballot. Those voters have until May 16 to bring identification to the county building.
“I think (the high number) is due to (poll worker) training because people can’t be turned away,” Watkins said.
This year, the provisional ballots could change the race for Frankton-Lapel School Board District 4, in which John Henderson won over Tami Bailey-Davis by 24 votes. However, Watkins said the provisional ballots were not all from the Frankton-Lapel district, so the results might not be altered that dramatically.
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MADISON COUNTY VOTER TURNOUT
This year’s primary brought out the largest percentage of registered voters in Madison County since 1990. Presidential primaries were in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.
1990: 41%
1992: 37%
1994: 29%
1996: 35%
1998: 24%
2000: 23%
2002: 30%
2004: 25%
2006: 25%
2008: 43%
Tuesday voter turnout from nearby counties
Delaware: 41%
Grant: 36%
Hamilton: 46%
Hancock: 42%
Henry: 50%
Howard: 39%
Madison: 43%
Marion: 36%
Tipton: 42%
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