Indiana
Early voting numbers suggest strong turnout, but which candidate benefits?
Chris and Shelby Ashby waited about an hour and a half Tuesday morning to vote at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, where the line coiled around temporary fences before stretching into the parking lot.
The Indianapolis couple’s toddler was in preschool, and they were hoping to avoid the long lines on Election Day.
Chris Ashby said he was motivated to vote for Democrat Jennifer McCormick in the governor’s race and Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
“We rank too low in education,” Ashby said. “[McCormick] is an educator, and it was the most important issue for me.”
Shelby Ashby said it was “very important we have the right people in charge,” a reference toHarris.
At the same location, Claire Baker, also of Indianapolis, waited three hours to vote. This was her first time voting early.
“It’s always a privilege to exercise my right to vote,” Baker said. She was most excited to cast a ballot for former President Donald Trump in the presidential election.
The wait was at least an hour in neighboring Hamilton County, where Fishers resident Blake Broeker said as left the county fairgrounds that he was also motivated to vote for Trump.
Early voting is well underway in Indiana, where nearly 955,000 people had submitted ballots as of Tuesday. That number marks a strong turnout that trailed only the record-setting early turnout of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed more Hoosiers to vote early — either in person or by mail.
Election experts were encouraged by the turnout thus far but stopped short of forecasting an advantage for either party or candidate based on the numbers.
“If you’d have told me that a quarter of the turnout in 2020 would have already voted in Indiana with a week to go, I would have been surprised,” said Michael Wolf, political science chair and professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne. “It is quite a surprise. If you want people to participate, then early voting is clearly working.”
What the early voting numbers show
So far, 2024’s turnout lags behind 2020 figures but is well ahead of 2016 numbers.
In 2020, more than 1,358,000 Hoosiers had voted by the week before Election Day. The total in 2016 was about 571,000.
According to Democratic data firm TargetSmart, about 54% of the ballots returned thus far belonged to women — a similar proportion to voter splits in 2020.
The split by age demographics is starker.
In 2020, about 31% of ballots returned at this point belonged to voters under 50 years old, while about 42% came from people over 65.
This year, about 25% of ballots collected thus far came from voters under 50. About 49% of votes belonged to Hoosiers over 65.
What the numbers don’t show
“We know how many people voted early, but we have no idea who they voted for,” Indiana University Professor Emeritus Marjorie Hershey said.
Trump vilified the early voting practice in 2020, Hershey said, and Democrats tended to take the pandemic more seriously. That meant early voting numbers skewed Democratic.
But more Republicans have embraced the practice in 2024, making it impossible to speculate about which candidates benefit from strong early turnout, according to Hershey.
It’s also too early to make such assumptions.
“Typically, what happens is a wave for one candidate or the other in the last few days,” Hershey said. “But it’s impossible to know who that will be.”
Competitive governor’s race could be driving turnout
Wolf, the Purdue professor, said the gubernatorial race between Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun and McCormick, the state’s former superintendent of public instruction, may be a factor in the high turnout.
“People are paying attention to the governor’s race,” he said. “It’s hard to punch through the national-level stuff, but the candidates have had good, crisp debates.”
McCormick is airing commercials paid for with out-of-state money, Wolf said, and Republican groups have moved to match — meaning they must see the race tightening.
“To have two candidates who have held statewide office matters,” Wolf said. “Both candidates have run solid campaigns, and McCormick has produced a narrative that will have some people more engaged.”
Voting lines outside of Indianapolis
One statewide advocacy group is noting long early voting lines in places where they have not been seen before.
“It’s not unusual to see long lines and waits in Marion County, but we’re hearing about lines in other parts of the state,” said Julia Vaughn, executive director of the voter rights advocacy group Common Cause Indiana. “Two hours in Carmel. An hour and a half in Allen County.”
Vaughn was cautiously optimistic about the turnout thus far.
“It would be great if, [with] this election, Indiana could get out of the cellar in terms of voter turnout,” she said.
Several key issues, such as health care and education, were motivating voters more than specific candidates in this cycle, Vaughn said.
She is rooting for the heavy turnout to continue through Tuesday.
“I hope vote centers aren’t ghost towns on Election Day,” she said.
Contact Rory Appleton on X at @roryehappleton or email him at [email protected].
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MARTINSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — June 19 is a celebration of the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas learned they were free.
As communities across Indiana mark the holiday, the Juneteenth event in Martinsville drew a lot of attention on Friday evening.
Event organizer Jeannine Lee Ferrer said, “This is American history. It’s all of our history, and I think we should all celebrate it, because I think most of the people are happy that it finally ended.”
Sampson Levingston, a local tour guide and Indiana history buff, says Martinsville is historically known as a sundown town, a place where Black people were warned not to remain after dark for fear of their safety. In 1968, a Black woman named Carol Jenkins was killed by two men while selling encyclopedias door to door. One of her killers was never found.
Levingston said, “She got murdered with a hate crime by a white guy and so there are some things that sting. I’ve seen with my own eyes: KKK signs in Martinsville, Indiana.”
Ku Klux Klan, or KKK, is a white supremacist and right-wing extremist hate group in the United States.
Martinsville’s history was one of the reasons why the event generated a lot of conversation within the community. As Levingston sees it, the event was a positive move. “Why not? Wherever you live, wherever you are, figure out how you can get involved with Juneteenth. We’ve got beautiful cities with beautiful history, and I think it’s time we all lean into that and acknowledge that so we can learn and grow with it,” he said.
In a statement, Republican Martinsville Mayor Kenny Costin says the city has undergone a positive transformation.
“The progress is real, and it is ongoing. We remain committed to this work, so Martinsville becomes not only a place where people are proud to live, but a place where they are proud to belong.”
Ferrer said she’s lived in Martinsville since 2021 and has not experienced anything racist in the city. However, she said she was upset when the event was first announced, and people made racist comments to her online. “I’m not being naive to what has gone on in the past, but I think Martinsville has moved to a different chapter, and we’re ready as citizens of Morgan County and Martinsville, Indiana, to turn a page, and I look forward to today being a part of that.”
Ferrer said dozens of people have reached out to her, offering their support and wanting to learn more about the holiday. “Those really are truly the people that are touching my heart and are making me think that this was a good thing to do, and to reach out and let people know that we are more alike than we are different.”
She hopes to host another Juneteenth event in Martinsville in 2026.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Hamilton County teen on Friday said he’s excited for his first convention as a voting delegate.
Jackson Massillamany, who just turned 18 and graduated from high school in May, is no stranger to politics. His father, Mario, is the chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party and his mother, Amy, serves on the Hamilton County Council.
Jackson said he signed up to be a delegate at this weekend’s Indiana Republican Party convention in Fort Wayne after Mario asked if he was interested.
“It’s kinda cool to see how this is done and what my dad actually does,” he said. “At first, I wasn’t really excited for it, but I’m here now and I’m having a blast.”
Mario Massillamany, who is a contributor to “All INdiana Politics,” said Jackson is the youngest delegate at the convention. He said he has been taking Jackson along to party functions ever since he was an infant.
“It’s a great opportunity for him to get more active and involved in politics, and I think we need to try and get the younger generations involved in our political process,” he said. “I think this is a great opportunity for him to come here, have a good experience and then go back and talk to his friends about why it’s important to get involved.”
Jackson will be one of 1,800 delegates tasked with picking a nominee for secretary of state. It’s a closely watched race. Current Secretary of State Diego Morales, who is seeking a second term, has faced numerous controversies since he took office. Knox County Clerk David Shelton and conservative activist and 2024 gubernatorial candidate Jamie Reitenour have been running against Morales for months. Last month, Max Engling, a staffer for Sen. Jim Banks and a 2024 congressional candidate, joined the race at the last minute with Banks’ backing.
The Republican winner in November will have to face Bayh family scion Beau Bayh, a Democrat, along with Libertarian Lauri Shillings and, potentially, former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who is running as an independent under the Lincoln Party label.
Mario said he’s telling Jackson to keep his eyes and ears open and to meet with all of the weekend’s candidates.
Both Massillamanys said the key to getting young people to vote and to get politically involved is to, first, encourage them to register to vote and, second, to elevate more young people who are in politics.
“I feel like many people are scared to be involved in politics because nobody else younger does it,” Jackson said. “So, like, me and other people my age, being able to reach out to others to try and get involved, I feel like, is the best way for people my age to get involved.”
Delegates to the 2026 Indiana Republican Party convention will make their selections on Saturday. Besides secretary of state candidates, they will choose nominees for state treasurer and state comptroller. The current occupants of those offices, Daniel Elliott and Elise Nieshalla, respectively, are running for second terms and are unopposed.
Government reporter Garrett Bergquist will be in Fort Wayne on Saturday and will have a full report on the results of the convention at 6, 10 and 11 p.m. on WISH-TV.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
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