Early Voting In Marion County Down 25%

Ten days ago, Marion County elections officials were reporting that early voting was up 18% over early votes cast during the same period of the 2008 presidential election when Obama narrowly carried red state Indiana by the narrowest of margins. County election officials in the state's largest county now report that early voting is down 25% from 2008. Fox 59 News, quoting election officials, says that approximately 35,000 votes had been cast through Tuesday compared to 47,000 votes that were cast during the same period in 2008, a 25% decrease in early voting participation. Marion County Clerk Beth White is blaming the fall off on the fact that voters only have a choice of voting at her office in the City-County Building, while in 2008 there were two satellite voting sites for early voting. White touted the uptick in voting in news reports ten days earlier despite having only one location at which to cast an early vote. A decrease in early voting participation in Marion County may bode well for the prospects of Republican statewide candidates. In 2008, Obama carried Marion County by a more than 100,000-vote plurality compared to a less than 50,000-vote plurality for Gov. Mitch Daniels in his landslide win over Jill Long-Thompson. In the Attorney General's race and the School Superintendent's race, the Democratic candidates carried Marion County by a more than 60,000-vote plurality. The Democrats also handily won county-wide races for Treasurer, Coroner and Surveyor in 2008.