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Putnam voter turnout less than 20 percent

Wednesday, May 8, 2024
By ERIC BERNSEE, Editor Emeritus

In a primary election that saw fewer than 20 percent of Putnam County registered voters cast a ballot, local results Tuesday nonetheless mimicked those across Indiana.

Just 18.99 percent of Putnam County’s 25,308 registered voters cast ballots in the primary, including 3,468 on election day itself. The total 4,807-voter turnout also saw 1,148 do early -- walk-in absentee -- voting, while 191 voted via paper absentee ballot.

That didn’t stop Republican voters from selecting former Sen. Mike Braun to emerge as the party’s gubernatorial standard bearer in the general election vs. Democrat Jennifer McCormick, a one-time GOP superintendent of public instruction.

Locally Braun polled 1,647 votes, or 39.46, to outdistance five other Republican hopefuls in the governor’s race. Brad Chambers, who billed himself as a political outsider the likes of Mitch Daniels, drew 809 votes for 19.38 percent as runner-up to Braun. Next in order were Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, 703 votes for 16.84 percent; Eric Doden, 656 votes for 15.72 percent; Jamie Reitenour, 181 votes for 4.34 percent; and Curtis Hill, 178 votes for 4.26 percent.

Meanwhile, Greencastle resident Jim Baird, seeking his fourth term as 4th District U.S. congressman, received 64.7 percent of the district vote to turn back challengers Charles Bookwalter, 27.2 percent, and John P. Piper, 8.0 percent. The Republican Baird, who will turn 79 before the general election, did even better with local voters. He got 2,728 Putnam County votes for 66.23 percent, while Bookwalter earned 1,156 local votes for 27 percent. Piper had only 235 votes, or 5.1 percent.

Districtwide Baird earned 48,703 votes to 20,500 for Bookwalter and 6,051 for Piper.

In the State Senate District 24 seat race, former Hendricks County Sheriff Brett Clark emerged as the primary winner with challenger Anne L. Engelhardt of Avon getting 670 local votes for 23.63 percent. Districtwide, Clark received 9,729 votes (75.5 percent) to 3,158 (24.5 percent) for Engelhardt.

Clark will now face Democrat Veronica Pejril, a Greencastle resident and former City Council member, in the November. Unopposed in the primary, Pejril garnered 340 votes.

The other State Senate seat serving Putnam County is held by Rodric Bray of Martinsville, who easily turned back a primary challenge from Jay Hart in District 37.

Bray, the president pro tempore of the Indiana Senate, accounted for 716 Putnam votes, or 64.27 percent, to 398 tallies and 35.73 percent for Hart. Districtwide, Bray earned 63 percent of the vote to 37 for Hart. Bray will face Democrat Kimberly M. Schofield in the general election. Unopposed, she earned 121 local votes and 1,769 districtwide.

Republican Beau Baird of Greencastle was unopposed in the District 44 state representative race, earning 3,447 votes in his march toward a fourth term. He currently faces no Democrat opposition in the fall election.

The estimated 475 persons requesting a Democrat ballot -- judging at least by the number voting for President Joe Biden in the primary -- were rewarded with only a choice in two races, neither a Putnam County selection.

Democrats chose Derrick Holder of Martinsville to challenge Jim Baird for the 4th District U.S. congressional seat in the fall. Locally, Holder earned 331 votes (71.8 percent) to 130 for Rimpi K. Girn (28.2 percent). Across the district, Holder got 7,707 votes for 63.5 percent, while Girn drew 4,436 votes for 36.5 percent of the tally.

Democrat voters also went for Valerie McCray (303 votes, 65.87 percent) over Marc Carmichael (157 votes, 34.13 percent) in the U.S. Senate race. McCray will be an underdog against Republican Jim Banks in the fall. Banks was unopposed Tuesday, earning 3,475 Putnam votes.

Putnam Democrats did not field a single candidate for a county office in the primary but the party will have until July 3 to appoint a candidate to those ballot vacancies.

In the only other contested race on Tuesday’s primary ballot, Donald J. Trump polled 3,414 Republican votes to 720 for party challenger Nikki R. Haley. That gave Trump 82.58 percent to 17.42 percent for Haley locally.

The results of contested local races are included in other Banner Graphic stories.

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  • Reminder to everyone that primaries are not elections, they are party business conducted on the taxpayer dime. Primaries in their current form should be banned, and parties should be required to select their candidates without the public paying for it.

    -- Posted by techphcy on Wed, May 8, 2024, at 6:21 PM

  • I couldn’t agree with the above statement more. But I would add that we need to reduce the stranglehold and control the 2 parties have over general, non primary, elections as well.

    Both parties are completely failing the electorate and America in general at the moment.

    -- Posted by Koios on Wed, May 8, 2024, at 8:31 PM

  • If the following story from WISH-TV doesn’t convince you our current election system is broken, nothing will. And I realize this could easily have been a democrat situation.

    INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A former Republican party official on Wednesday said it's now up to party insiders to decide who will face U.S. Rep. Andre Carson in November.

    Jennifer Pace took home 31% of the vote in Tuesday's Republican primary for the Seventh Congressional District, beating three other candidates. There's just one problem: Pace died on March 6.

    Tom John, former Marion County Republican Party Chair and a contributor on News 8's "All INdiana Politics," says it's unusual for deceased candidates to win an election but it does happen. He says that's why state law allows political parties to fill ballot vacancies after an election.

    Feb. 16 was the deadline for any candidate to withdraw from a primary. The Indiana Election Division decided ballot access challenges on Feb. 27. Both deadlines passed while Pace was still alive. John says state law prohibits last-minute changes to the ballot because all 92 county clerks have to be on the same page.

    "You can't be changing ballots at the last minute," he said. "And that's why, essentially, once it's locked down, there's not much you can do and you have to let the process play out."

    A similar situation exists in State Senate District 34. The late Sen. Jean Breaux, who died on March 20, won her primary, but she was unopposed, unlike Pace.

    Under state law, in the event of a vacancy on the ballot after a primary, state parties may choose a candidate for the general election by caucus. The deadline to do so this year is July 3. John said precinct committee members will choose the candidate. He said the situation is an example of what happens when people don't vote or don't research the candidates.

    "If you don't go out, you never know what's going to happen," he said. "Over my time in politics, I've seen races determined by one, two, three votes."

    An Indiana Republican Party spokesperson told News 8 that the election results will be certified May 24. Once that happens and party officials receive an official notice of a ballot vacancy, they will have 30 days to hold the caucus.

    Whoever Republican choose will face Carson, who easily defeated two challengers in the Democratic primary, and Libertarian Rusty Johnson, who was chosen at that party's nominating convention earlier this year.

    -- Posted by Koios on Wed, May 8, 2024, at 9:48 PM

  • Completely agree. Far too many people simply vote based on “I know that name” and “that’s my party”, and clearly don’t even know who they’re voting for, or even if they’re still alive.

    One person, one vote is a foundational principle of our republic, but when the majority of those who vote do so more as a team sport than as a consideration of proper governance, that system fails us all.

    -- Posted by techphcy on Thu, May 9, 2024, at 12:30 AM
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