What voters need to know ahead of Indiana’s 2022 primary election day

INDIANAPOLIS — Hoosier voters are heading again to the polls Tuesday for the Could major elections – and for some, it’s their first time voting in-person because the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A number of races are on the poll, together with an open seat for Congress in Indiana’s ninth District.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to six p.m. Tuesday. Election officers say you have to be in line by 6 p.m. to have the ability to vote.

“We began seeing folks on the very first day of early voting and so they’ve been ticking up since then,” mentioned Shruti Rana, who chairs the election board in Monroe County, the place voters are weighing in on the ninth Congressional District major.

With extra voters returning to solid their ballots in-person, Monroe County is opening extra polling locations for this major, Rana defined.

They’re all staffed, she added, however extra ballot employees can be an enormous assist.

“We did see a variety of ballot employees retire or select to not come again after 2018 into the 2020 elections, and so we do want extra,” Rana mentioned.

In keeping with a spokesperson for the Indiana Secretary of State’s Workplace, there is no such thing as a statewide masks mandate for the polls nor some other COVID-19 guidelines in place, although some counties plan to maintain voters distanced and provide hand sanitizer.

In the meantime, native election officers throughout Indiana say requests for mail-in ballots have declined considerably.

“We have now one precinct that normally votes about 90% of their folks, typically extra, and I feel they voted a few hundred by absentee mail [in 2020], and so they’re listening to that almost all of them are coming again this yr,” mentioned Beth Sheller, election administrator for Hamilton County.

Based mostly on the early voting turnout, each Sheller and Rana mentioned they’re anticipating comparable voter turnout to the 2018 major, which was about 20% of registered voters statewide.

Election officers and advocates say they hope that quantity seems to be increased.

“These are actually necessary elections that can have a huge effect on who the victor is in November,” mentioned Julia Vaughn, government director of Frequent Trigger Indiana.

Due to redistricting, your polling precinct could have modified. If you happen to’re not sure of the place you’re presupposed to vote, click on right here. You may as well name your county elections workplace, Sheller mentioned.