Turnout around 55% with more votes to be counted
GOSHEN — Dylan DeMorrow knew exactly who he was voting for as he stepped up to the ballot machine on Tuesday: his daughter.
The Goshen maintenance worker cast his vote at First Presbyterian Church late in the afternoon as 3-year-old Evalie sat at his feet. She was happy to get an "I voted" ink stamp on her hand afterward from poll worker Janet Waldusky, who said they ran out of stickers to give away sometime before they hit the 800 voter mark at around 4 p.m.
DeMorrow said Evalie often takes part in whatever he's doing, whether it's tinkering around the house or performing his civic duty.
"I'm actually a single father. So wherever I go, she goes with me. I tell her I'm going to vote, she's like, 'I want to vote too.' I tell her she ain't old enough yet," DeMorrow said. "Major elections, I do (vote). When it deals with us as people and what can benefit my family and benefit my daughter, then yeah, I'm going to vote, because every vote counts. ... I just want us to be able to survive without struggling. Single parent with single household income, it's hard these days."
Site Supervisor Michael Culp said around 50 people were waiting to get in when doors opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday. He said many of them indicated they were first-time voters.
Across the county, over 37,000 ballots were cast in-person Tuesday in addition to more than 29,000 cast ahead of time by people who voted absentee in-person and 3,800 who voted by mail. One of the county's 29 vote centers still had to be counted Wednesday after a machine malfunction prevented poll workers from counting the ballots cast there on Election Day, according to Clerk of the Courts Chris Anderson.
He said ballot-counting machines at the Lincoln Center and Granger Community Church in Elkhart as well as First Brethren Church in Nappanee suffered occasional paper twists as ballots were fed into them, though the jams were quickly cleared and ballots were still collected. A machine at the Lincoln Center also experienced a freeze, requiring it to be counted the next day.
The vote total won't be official until provisional ballots are added in several days from now. But the roughly 70,000 total ballots from early voting and the 28 centers counted Tuesday represent turnout of around 55 percent so far.
In 2020, a record-breaking 75,405 total ballots were cast in Elkhart County, totaling a near 60 percent voter turnout rate.
Kati Miller had to cast a provisional ballot Tuesday because she forgot to update her voter registration with her current address. Voters in a position like hers will have to verify their information with the county before their ballots can be counted, Waldusky said.
Miller said she forgot to update her address because she hasn't voted recently.
"I don't even think I voted in the last election. I started paying attention to politics when Trump was impeached," she said. "It made me realize that I really never paid attention to politics like I should have."
Over 18,800 Elkhart County residents helped put the 78-year-old Republican Trump back in the White House this year. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris received more than 6,800 votes.
On the south side of Goshen, around 1,500 voters had cast their ballot at the Maple City Chapel vote center by 5 p.m. Supervisor Sharon Harder said there were 142 people waiting to get in at the start of the day, and that the line of voters waiting for their turn stretched across the room at times.
"We've had all the way way back there, they come through here and then we had it all the way back there," she said, pointing around the large foyer. "I think it was a good day. I feel a little weary. Lots of first-time voters."
Karis and Mark Coleman joined the end of the line around half an hour before polls closed. They have different voting habits – Mark Coleman said he votes every year while Karis Coleman votes every few years – but he waited in the parking lot for his wife to swing by on her way home from work so they could go in together.
"He's a very die-hard Election Day voter," Karis Coleman said. "He didn't want to vote early."
"It's a privilege. Everyone needs to vote," Mark Coleman said. "All day long today we were talking about it – 'Did you vote?' 'Did you vote?' – at work. A couple of them said,' I don't vote, I never vote.' I said, 'Well, if you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain about the outcome.'"
