Early voting soars in Johnson County, across state
On a cold Tuesday morning, exactly one week before many of his fellow citizens will cast their votes, Charlie Burris of White River Township waited an hour to cast his absentee vote at the Johnson County courthouse in downtown Franklin.
Burris and his wife Jane are just two Hoosiers who have taken advantage of the early voting locations, which are open across the state. The couple will be traveling on Election Day.
“We wanted to exercise our vote,” Charlie Burris said.
Religion professor David Carlson, who has done early voting before, voted earlier this month, before long lines became common at the courthouse. Carlson, a Franklin resident, said the process took him about three minutes.
As a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, Carlson said he wanted to vote early because the Obama campaign has pushed for backers to vote early. But he also said voting early protects the voters from possible bad weather, long lines or other obstacles on Election Day, which is Nov. 4.
“I early voted before and found it really convenient, no lines. I knew this was going to be a high turn out [on Election Day].” he said. “Early voting in a way is a way to say ‘I’m going to get my vote in … I’m going to make sure my vote counts.”
An early vote technically is the same as an absentee ballot, except it’s cast in person, rather than by mail.
According the Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita’s Web site, as of Wednesday morning Hoosiers had already cast more than 365,000 absentee ballots, both by mail and in person.
In the last presidential election only 260,550 absentee votes were cast statewide, which accounted for about 10 percent of the total vote.
Johnson County Clerk Jill Jackson said voters have been waiting up to 90 minutes to vote at the courthouse. She said each day turnout has increased for courthouse voting. Jackson said 579 people voted Wednesday alone.
Because Indiana doesn’t have an early voting policy established, those who want to cast their ballot must fill out the additional absentee voter paperwork, Jackson said.
“They may have to wait 30 or 40 minutes but not the hour and half they are waiting here,” she said.
