Robert King

robert.king@indystar.com

The early returns on the 2014 election show that Indiana appears to be winning a race in which no state wants to claim victory — voter apathy.

An initial estimate by the United States Elections Project suggests Indiana had the lowest voter turnout in the country for the 2014 midterm elections.

In other words, we may be No. 1 in failing to do our civic duty.

Indiana election officials caution that county vote totals are still being delivered; final tallies won’t be known for a couple of weeks. But unofficial results last week showed that Indiana’s turnout was easily the lowest in the past 60 years, and likely the lowest ever, with as few as 29 percent of the eligible voting population casting ballots.

Looking at tallies from state election sites and The Associated Press, University of Florida political scientist Michael P. McDonald sized up the results for the project and estimated that Indiana’s turnout was 28 percent — half a percentage point lower than that of Texas.

McDonald said it’s possible — as counts are finalized — that Indiana could swap places with the nearest bottom dwellers, Texas and New York. But Indiana vastly underperformed its neighbors and underperformed against other states that, like Indiana, had no marquee races. The turnout was so bad in Indiana that McDonald said it raises questions about whether the state has systemic roadblocks to voting.

“There’s something going on in Indiana itself,” he said.

To be clear, this was an election in which voters across the nation stayed home in droves. At 36.4 percent, the turnout was the lowest for a midterm election since millions of eligible voters were otherwise occupied by something known as World War II.

Just because of the election cycle, Indiana’s vote was particularly low on the buzz factor. This wasn’t a gubernatorial year. There was no Senate race — a quirk that happens once every six years. And when the highest-profile offices on the ballot are the auditor, treasurer and secretary of state, you’ve got a recipe for a snoozefest.

There were factors likely related to the way districts are drawn. None of the state’s nine congressional races was competitive, with all the incumbents cruising to victory. McDonald refers to this as “the corrosive effects of gerrymandering.”

There was the political reality of Republican dominance and Democratic ineptitude. The GOP already held supermajorities in both chambers of the Statehouse, and that was certain to stay the same. In scores of races across the state, Democrats failed to field a candidate.

“There were a couple of things at work, and they all conspired to pull turnout down, and they all worked together,” said Robert Dion, a political scientists at the University of Evansville. “There’s not one single factor.”

Still, McDonald said, even when Indiana was a key battleground in the 2008 presidential election, its turnout was lower than the national rate, and far lower than in other battleground states. He suggested that Indiana’s election laws might be to blame.

Many states allow voters to register right up until Election Day, but Indiana cuts off registration almost a full month before. Election Day registrations, he said, can add 5 to 10 percentage points to turnout rates.

Then there is the reality of Indiana’s strict voter ID law, adopted in 2005. Studies have shown such laws can depress turnout rates by 4 to 5 percentage points, McDonald said.

Finally, McDonald said, Indiana is more restrictive in its use of absentee voting than many states. The National Conference of State Legislatures lists 33 states that don’t require an excuse for mail-in ballots. Indiana is among those that does require an excuse.

Valerie Kroeger, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Connie Lawson, whose office oversees elections, expressed skepticism about McDonald’s turnout numbers for Indiana. She said Indiana’s early voting period is one of the longest in the country, which aids turnout.

“Turnout is based on candidates and issues,” she said. “That’s what drives an election.”

Whatever the cause, Dion, from the University of Evansville, described Indiana’s performance as “pathetic.”

“It’s miserable to think that we are last — that should cause everyone to hang their head in shame,” he said. “We don’t want that distinction.”

Cathy Knapp of The Star contributed to this story. Call Star reporter Robert King at (317) 444-6089. Follow him on Twitter: @RbtKing.

Five states with lowest voter turnout

1. Indiana, 28 percent.

2. Texas, 28.5 percent.

3. New York, 28.8 percent.

4. Utah, 28.8 percent.

5. Tennessee 29.1 percent.

Five states with highest voter turnout

1. Maine, 59.3 percent.

2. Wisconsin, 56.9 percent.

3. Alaska, 55.3 percent.

4. Colorado, 53 percent.

5. Oregon, 52 percent.

Source: United States Elections Project, Michael P. McDonald