Published: May 07, 2008 04:05 pm            

Voter turnout high

One of the most impressive primary voter turnouts in Boone County history had party chairman happy and eager.

More than 41 percent of the county’s 36,892 registered voters cast ballots.

The turnout was “nice and steady,” said Boone County Clerk Penny Bogan. There were no problems with voting machines or delays in getting the computer records uploaded and counted.

“There was a definite increase in interest,” Republican Party Chairman Tom Easterday said.

“We are really excited,” Democratic Party Chair Jim Whelan said. “There are a lot of new voters.”

The county signed up 3,188 new voters, Boone County Deputy Clerk Jessica Fouts said.

“That’s impressive,” remarked Marcia Wilhoite, an incumbent Boone County Council member who took one of three places in the general election.

Nearly 1,800 persons cast absentee votes, with 1,098 either going to the Boone County Courthouse or using satellite voting centers in Thorntown and Zionsville.

The absentee turnout has been higher than in past years. Boone County technology director Sean Horan said 2,700 absentee ballots were cast in the 2004 presidential general election. “I know because I counted them twice.”

That year a computer malfunction required all of the absentee cards be scanned twice. It was 2 a.m. before all the votes were tabulated.

The ballot included the local races for school board and the county, but most voters minds in Zionsville were firmly on the Democratic presidential race.

"I just think that is more important right now," regular democratic voter Suzy Nagy said.

Normally Democrats don’t have many options in Zionsville. On the democratic ballot their were only two contested partisan races for governor and president, while the Republican ballot had many contested races including auditor, congressional, county council and county commissioner.

Having important races for Democrats and Republicans could be one factor that drove turnout to such high levels.

Evan Williams, a poll worker at Zionsville United Methodist Church, said turnout was much higher than in previous elections. Forty-nine percent of the registered voters from the four precincts assigned to ZUMC voted, he said.

The other Zionsville polling places also reported a higher than normal turnout. Nancy Wise, a poll worker at Zionsville Presbyterian Church, said voters were lined up at the doors at 6 a.m. when the polls opened, and since the initial rush, it had been a steady stream of voters.

Bebe Denton, also working at ZPC, said she noticed many more young voters than in the past.

While the excitement of the Democratic presidential race drove many Democrats to the polls, it also caused some Republicans to switch over the Democratic side.

Jeanine Metzing said she almost always votes Republican, but decided to switch to vote on a Democratic ballot this time.

"It was strictly making your vote count," she said.

She said she wanted to have more people to choose from. She is also tired of hearing about the Democratic race. She wanted to do her part in ending the race, and finally get to the general election.

Other voters, such as Matt Light who normally votes Republican, switched over because of his dissatisfaction with President George Bush.

“The administration screwed everything up so bad there has to be some kind of fix,” Light said.

Some Republicans didn’t have the best interest of the Democrats in their mind when switching parties. One woman outside Zionsville Town Hall who said she voted for Hillary Clinton answered yes when asked if she was “a chaos Republican,” but quickly turned around and walked to car. Conservative Radio host Rush Limbaugh has been encouraging his listeners to cross over to vote for Clinton to extend the democratic race in effort to split or causes chaos in the party.

Williams said he noticed many people choosing Democratic ballots rather than Republican, which is the opposite of what usually happens in Zionsville.

He said it was the Republicans’ turn to vote in the Democrats race because in the last primary election, many Democrats switched to vote in the Zionsville Town Council race.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.