Heavier-than-usual voter turnout in Marion County
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Tuesday was the first municipal election since the COVID-19 lockdown.
Typically, Indianapolis has a 20% turnout for the Indianapolis mayor’s race, but this year’s campaign certainly was vigorous, and voters responded.
In the 2019 municipal election in Marion County, 153,977 voters meant a turnout of 24.2%
In Tuesday’s municipal in Marion County, the turnout of 26.3% represented 164,677 registered voters. Of those voters, about 36% voted prior to Election Day.
Derek Izzi talked with I-Team 8 after he voted Tuesday afternoon in one of the busiest precincts in Marion County. “One way or another, we are either going to get change because someone will come in and be a change agent, or we are going to get change because somebody is going to wake up and hear what people are asking.”
In addition to the mayoral race, a City-County Council race in Washington Township in northern Marion County was generating a lot of interest. With two races on the ballot, most people took less than a minute to vote.
Izzi says he votes in every election, but no one particular issue brought him to polls this November. “Just change for the city,” he said.
Just down the street I-Team 8 found Omar Brito, a naturalized citizen casting a vote in his fifth election. He takes voting very seriously. “The act of voting is important, and I like to vote because there are issues that influence me and, if I didn’t, I couldn’t say anything about the issue that are effecting me.”
Brito voted at the precinct at St Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 W, 86th St., which typically is one of the busiest precincts in the county.
Back downtown, at the City-County Building, voting was steady at noon.
Cindy Mowery, the Republican co-director of Marion county voter registration, said municipal election don’t typically generate the interest of a general election, but, as of noon, voting was heavier than the last one in 2019.
Joel Weyrauch, from Well Done Marketing for the Marion County Election Board, issued a news release about 7:19 p.m. Tuesday.
“Polls across Marion County closed at 6:00 p.m. this evening, and the Marion County Election Board is pleased to announce that 164,677 voters cast ballots in the 2023 Municipal Election. This number includes voters who cast absentee ballots as well as those who came out to one of the county’s 186 vote centers today. 26.3% of registered voters cast their ballot, an increase over the 24.2% turnout in the 2019 election—the last municipal election cycle in Indiana.
“‘In Marion County, our election process works,’ said Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell. ‘We’re proud of the increase in voter turnout this year, and I encourage every single registered voter to exercise their right to vote in the next election. If all 630,000+ voters in our county came out to vote today, we would’ve ensured their vote counted.’”
Joel Weyrauch, from Well Done Marketing for the Marion County Election Board