Voters in Lake County are turning out in record numbers to early voting sites in advance of Tuesday’s general election.
More than 37,500 voters had cast their ballots at one of 11 early voting sites in the county by Friday morning. Patrick Gabrione, Republican deputy director of the Board of Elections and Voter Registration, said the figure represents more than 10 percent of voters before polls open Tuesday morning and that figure will keep going as early voting continues Saturday and Monday.
“We are 11,000 over our best and that was 2012,” Gabrione said.
Lake County experienced its highest voter turnout ever – 70.63 percent – in 2008 when President Barack Obama first ran for office. Voter turnout was 60.59 percent in 2012, election officials said. A total of 365,860 Lake County residents are registered to vote in Tuesday’s election. There were 304,512 registered voters in 2008 and 339,868 in 2012.
In contrast, voter turnout in the 2015 election for municipal offices totaled at 15.21 percent of the 318,655 registered voters on the books.
This year, registered voter numbers are the highest they have been for a presidential election despite a downtick in population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Lake County population was 493,443 in 2008; 493,118 in 2012 and 487,865 in 2015, the last year population figures for the county were available.
“That’s an incredible number,” Gabrione said. The board of elections also has mailed out about 10,000 absentee ballots and about 65 percent of those have been returned.
“People are voting at the rate of a couple thousand a day,” Gabrione said. Voter turnout has been highest in Crown Point at the elections board office at the Government Center with 8,036 votes cast by Monday morning and in St. John at the St. John Township Assessor’s office where 4,963 people have voted. Approximately 73 people an hour are voting in Crown Point while 52 per hour are voting in St. John.
Early voting turnout by Friday morning at the other nine satellite sites was 4,114 in Schererville; 3,755 in Munster; 3,321 in Highland; 2,950 in Gary; 2,331 in Lowell; 2,192 in Hobart, 2,079 in Hammond; 1,939 in Winfield and 1,557 in East Chicago.
Dan Dernulc, Lake County Republican Party chairman, said the strong turnout in the southern part of the county bodes well for Republican candidates.
“People want conservative values. Maybe I’m reading this wrong. There is a movement happening. We will see how it comes out,” Dernulc said.
Sheriff John Buncich, chair of Lake County’s Democratic Central Committee, said voter turnout likely will surpass both 2008 and 2012 and that is a good thing. Increasing the number of early voting locations and times has paid off and gives everybody the opportunity to vote, he said.
“This is what we are striving for, to get that enthusiasm to get out and vote,” Buncich said. Lake County is the second largest county in the state behind Marion and he wants the county’s voter turnout numbers to reflect that.
Buncich said he is keeping an eye on the high turnout numbers in south Lake County, but expects to see a surge in north Lake County voters come Tuesday.
“Historically, the northern part of the county traditionally goes out to the polls election day. I hope that trend continues,” Buncich said.
Statewide, election officials say the state is poised to set a new early voting record.
The Secretary of State’s office says county clerks had received nearly 638,000 absentee ballots cast in person and through other methods as of Thursday.
Indiana Election Division co-director Angie Nussmeyer says that at the current early voting pace she has “no doubt” Indiana will set a new state record by Monday’s early voting deadline.
Indiana’s record for early voting was set in the 2008 general election, when voters cast 662,443 absentee ballots.
Election officials in Indianapolis and suburban Hamilton County say their Tuesday election totals might not be available until sometime Wednesday because of the large number of absentee ballots that must be counted.
Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Associated Press contributed.
