Early Voting Turnout In Dearborn County Has Been Better Than 2014, 2016

Dearborn County voters aren't waiting patiently to cast their ballots for the 2018 general election.

(Dearborn County, Ind.) – Early voting in Dearborn County this month has been far above the early turnout in past midterm elections, and it will likely eclipse the 2016 presidential election.

Dearborn County Clerk of Courts Gayle Pennington says her office has been busy since early voting opened October 10 at the Dearborn County Government Center in Lawrenceburg.

“Mail has been heavy. Walk-ins have been a lot heavier than normal,” she says, adding there have been more than 70 walk-in early voters some days.

Adding them up, there have been 778 walk-in early voters in Dearborn County as of Thursday, October 25, according to Pennington. Requests for mailed ballots total 659, with about half of those returned so far.

Although there is still more than a week to go before Election Day, November 6, Dearborn County has blown past the total of early absentee voting during the last midterm election in 2014. That year in the general election, there were 425 walk-in early voters and 230 mailed absentee ballots.

The anticipation among Dearborn County voters has even beaten that of the 2016 presidential election, when 778 walk-ins and 659 mailed absentee ballots were counted. It is only a coincidence that those are the exact same numbers of this election so far.

The Indiana Secretary of State’s office says as of Thursday, more than 292,000 residents had either cast a ballot at early voting centers or through the mail. The number is more than double the early ballots which had been cast by the same time in October 2014, when total voter turnout for the election was around 30 percent.

The number is about 48,000 less than the 341,000 early ballots cast by this date in October 2016, the presidential year in which President Donald Trump was elected. Statewide voter turnout that year was around 58 percent.

In-person early voting is available at courthouses across Indiana through noon on Monday, November 5. Check with your local county clerk of courts for early voting hours and exact locations.