The low voter turnout number is fairly typical for a municipal primary election.
Candidates and supporters were stationed across the street from the vote center at the Lawrenceburg Tate Street Firehouse on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Photo by Travis Thayer, Eagle Country 99.3.
(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - Voter turnout in Dearborn County was low, if not usual for a municipal primary election.
According to the unofficial election results, 19.37 percent of the eligible voters in Aurora, Lawrenceburg and Greendale came out to cast a ballot in this election. By comparison, primary election turnout in Dearborn County in 2015 was 19.06 percent,
In the heavily Republican county with cities seemingly turning more red than blue each year, about 66 percent, or 1,140, of the ballots were Republican. 594 Democratic ballots were cast.
RELATED: Indiana Votes 2019 Coverage
Dearborn County put its new voting machines and vote centers plan into action for the first time Tuesday. Clerk of Courts Gayle Pennington said Tuesday afternoon there had been no reported issues with the new electronic voting machines.
The new machines use touch-screen technology as voters make their choices. Pieces of paper with only a bar code indicating which precinct the voter is in are inserted into the machine, then the voter’s selections are printed and the completed ballot is output. The voter places their completed ballot in the appropriate precinct ballot-scanning machine.
The county’s use of vote centers opened one polling location in each of the three neighboring cities. Voters could choose to vote at any of the three vote centers, not just the one in their city. Multiple voting machines were set up inside each vote center to prevent waiting.
Having fewer polling places allowed candidates and their supporters to get in last-minute campaigning in one area instead of spreading out to several locations, making for a large crowd standing outside the polling place throughout the day.
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