Early voting in Lake and Porter counties is running ahead of the midterms four years ago, election officials said, as both voting and campaigning ramp up earlier each election.
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Michelle Fajman, Lake County elections and registrations director, said that as of around 10 a.m. Friday, about 46,000 people had voted early, up from 30,000 at the same time four years ago.
Mail-in voting is down this year by about 5,000 votes, she said, but the county is still up about 10,000 votes compared to four years ago.
“Early votes for walk-ins are good,” Fajman said. “It just shows people the ease and convenience, and those numbers continue to grow each and every year.”
Fajman isn’t shocked mail-in votes are down, she said, especially as they were at the forefront of political discourse earlier this year. According to Post-Tribune archives, in September, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing parts of a rule that would restrict mail-in voting.
Fajman hopes the high voting numbers will continue on Election Day. She doesn’t know why early voting is up this year, but Fajman said she’s thrilled.
“I hope that voters are going to be showing up,” she said. “Our numbers for voter turnout lately have been low, and elections are too important to not have a say in who’s representing you.”
Fajman said she doesn’t believe higher early voting numbers are because the U.S. Department of Justice monitors will be in Lake County on Election Day.
According to a news release from Fajman’s office, the board of elections met with DOJ officials on Oct. 27 about their plans for Election Day. Election officials in Lake and Marion counties were told they’d have monitors on Oct. 20.
Fajman said the DOJ told her they’d be in those two counties because of population sizes.
DOJ monitors will not have credentials and will be conducting exit interviews with voters about accessibility to the polls, language barriers and whether they were provided a provisional ballot if needed.
“They will be in plain clothes, and if anyone doesn’t want to speak with them, they can simply bypass them and don’t have to stop,” Fajman said.
Randy Niemeyer, chair of the Lake County Republican Party, told the Post-Tribune that he believes people’s habits are changing with voting.
“I don’t see it as a bellwether of any sort of indication,” Niemeyer said. “They’re utilizing the options that are there. … I think it’s just the normal trends and changes of behavior around voting.”
As early voting has become more popular, Niemeyer said the Republican Party has shifted how they campaign.
“We have to focus on really making a hard push from about July to September now instead of August to October,” he said. “It just moved the entire calendar up a month.”
Mike Repay, chair of the Lake County Democratic Party, told the Post-Tribune that he’s encouraged by the higher turnout for early voting.
“We’re all about people having early access to the polling places and early access to make their voices heard,” he said.
Early voting numbers were already up, Repay said, so he doesn’t think the DOJ election monitor announcement changed that.
Repay said he wants people to vote however they’re most comfortable.
He also said campaigning has been pushed forward as early voting is more popular.
“Instead of thinking about the build up to Election Day in November, we’re talking more about Election Day being the first day of early voting,” Repay said. “So, everything’s been pushed forward.”
In Porter County, “it’s been incredibly busy,” said Sundae Schoon, director of the county’s Elections and Registration Office. “For early voting, the in-person will beat our primary, which isn’t hard,” she added of the low turnout in May.
Schoon said early voting gets busier with each passing election and currently is almost split equally with in-person voting on Election Day. She said 57% of voters voted early in the 2020 presidential election and there was also a majority voting absentee in the 2024 general election.
Mid-week, she reported that 19,377 voters had cast their ballots in person in early voting so far and 1,698 ballots had been received by mail.
The county’s two party chairs are pleased with turnout, but taking nothing for granted.
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“I think we will have our best turnout for a mid-term. I don’t know if we’ll beat ‘24, but we’ll beat ‘22,” said Don Craft, chair of the Porter County Democratic Party.
He and his counterpart, Porter County Republican Party Chair Nate Uldricks, agree Democrats historically show up in greater numbers for early voting, while Republicans tend to prefer to vote on Election Day. That’s not stopping Uldricks from encouraging his party to embrace early voting.
“There are people who say to me, ‘I don’t believe in early voting,’ and I say, ‘Well, you don’t have to believe in it. It’s here,’” he said. “We’re just encouraging Republicans to do it, which is breaking long-term habit for them.”
Porter County Democrats aren’t resting on their early voting laurels either. “I’m pleased with the turnout, but we need people to vote still,” said Craft. “Don’t let other people vote for you. Vote for yourself.”
Schoon and her staff and army of poll workers will be ready for them during what’s left of early voting, which ends at noon on Monday, and on Election Day. “We always prepare for 100% turnout no matter what,” she said.
Her advice to voters is to plan ahead, not wait until the last minute, bring a photo ID and be kind to the poll workers.
“These are long hours for our workers,” she explained. “They don’t get regular breaks and regular lunches.”
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday. For more information, including finding polling places, go to www.indianavoters.com.
[email protected]; Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.