Polls closing; Now the counting begins

Polls officially closed at 6 p.m. across Indiana and now it is time to tally the results.

However, voters who were in line when the polls closed are still allowed to vote, which means not all polling locations across the state have closed, despite the deadline.

Bartholomew County Clerk Shari Lentz said there have been few problems at the county’s vote centers today, with one machine not working correctly at the start of the morning voting at Donner Center. As of just before 6 p.m., 11,961 voters had cast ballots across the county today, and 21,147 cast early in person votes. Lentz said that mail in ballots must have reached the voter registration office by 6 p.m. tonight to be counted, and the travelling board totals for those who can’t leave their homes have also not been counted.

The turnout of just over 33,000 compares to more than 54,000 registered voters in the county and would represent a very good turnout.

Voters across the state have been casting their ballots in races ranging from the highest national and state offices including the president, U.S. Senate and House and the governor and attorney general. Locally there are contested statehouse races as well as contests for Bartholomew County Commissioner District 1, the three at-large seats on the Bartholomew County Council and three hotly contested seats on the Bartholomew Consolidated Schools board.

There are some candidates who have already won today, because their races were uncontested. Those include County Commissioner Tony London, Judge Jim Worton, Tom Barrett for County Coroner and Jake Fitzimmons for County Surveyor, all Republicans.

We’ll have more election results as they become available.