Bangert: Early voting up 700%, so far, over 2014 midterm after 'big' day at Purdue Early voting races out of the gates, including Monday at Purdue, as Tippecanoe County rolls out early voting sites to nearly two dozen locations between now and Nov. 6 Election Day

Dave Bangert | Journal & Courier

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The line of voters leading to the “Spirit of the Land Grant College,” the mural in the lobby of Purdue University’s Stewart Center, still stretched toward the doors of Loeb Playhouse, about 15 people deep, when the scheduled 2 p.m. last call came for the first day of Tippecanoe County’s satellite vote centers for this midterm election.

A volunteer stood at the end of a line – one that had not been much smaller most of the five hours that polling stations were open on the West Lafayette campus – to signal to stragglers that election officials were about to close shop.

“What were the numbers today?” Christa Coffey, Tippecanoe County clerk, asked, repeating a question put to her as the final voter of the day checked in and moved to a polling station.

“Big,” said Mike Smith, a Republican poll worker.

“Big first week,” Coffey said. “Presidential (election) first week big.”

The sample is way too small to start pinning turnout projections to less than a week of early voting, which started Wednesday with ballots available for the first three days in the elections office on the third floor of the Tippecanoe County Office Building.

WHO IS ON YOUR BALLOT? BUILD YOUR BALLOT HERE

Monday opened Tippecanoe County’s roving satellite voting stations, which will hit nearly two dozen retirement homes, high schools and supermarkets, in addition to the daily presence in the elections office, before the Nov. 6 election.

But in 2014, a midterm election with no presidential race in play, nearly four weeks of early voting netted 9,822 ballots on the county’s way to a 30 percent turnout. The first four days this year, including Monday at Purdue, saw 1,934 voters. (In the 2016 presidential election year, Tippecanoe County had 32,921 early voters, which was slightly more than half the total by November.)

Coffey said the number of in-person voting, compared to the same time in 2016, is running at just shy of 90 percent.

“We are currently 700 percent over the 2014 turnout for the same period,” Coffey said. “This week’s off-site voting sites may tell me more. After listening to voters, it seems that voting at the election office is no longer such a secret.”

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At Purdue on Monday, Coffey put the tally at 498. In 2014, at the same spot in Stewart Center, 78 voters turned up. In 2010, the figure was 450. (The average daily count was 790 over two days of early voting at Stewart Center ahead of the 2016 presidential election.)

Across campus, at Purdue’s Engineering Fountain, U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly joined a rally to back several state and local Democrats on the ballot. He led a march of 40 supporters after a brief talk that focused less on Mike Braun, his Republican challenger in a tight race seen as pivotal in control of the U.S. Senate, than it did about getting out an early vote.

“Every one of you, please, early voting is so critical,” Donnelly said. “Take 10 more people that you know between now and Election Day. If each of you take 10 more people, that would be spectacular.”

Jim Harper, a Democrat facing Republican incumbent Connie Lawson for secretary of state, said the campaigns had been pressing the idea of early voting, “because you never know what’s going to happen on Election Day that might make it so you can’t get there.”

“It’s all anecdotal right now, but I think people are energized, especially for a midterm,” Harper said, as Donnelly took selfies with students who’d given him a Purdue ball cap. “There’s this sense that people in Indiana could have a say in the way the country goes. People understand that. And they’re coming to the polls early, it looks like.”

James McCann, a political science professor at Purdue, said recent polling shows there’s more interest in this election compared to midterms of the past – and it’s especially true for younger Americans. He pointed to a Washington Post-ABC poll released in the past week that said 67 percent of those between 18 and 39 said they were “absolutely certain to vote” this year; a similar poll conducted in October 2014 found 42 percent in that age bracket were certain they’d vote. That’s a 25 percentage point increase between comparable midterm elections.

McCann, who was not part of the rally at Purdue, said another factor could be the pressure the parties are using to encourage early voting.

“It’s possible that these kinds of prompts might be more pronounced in this cycle than in 2014,” McCann said. “So, a significant uptick in early voting might stem partly from traditionally reliable voters opting to come out early. We won’t really know if this is happening until we see what turnout is like on Election Day itself.”

After the trek from the fountain to Stewart Center, Donnelly headed back to his campaign RV – “Loaded with Clif Bars – made in Indiana, I will tell you that – lukewarm soda and cold coffee,” he said – headed for northwest Indiana for another campaign event. (One student asked if Donnelly was coming into Stewart Center to vote. “I can’t vote here,” Donnelly, a resident of Granger in St. Joseph County, said. “I’ll go to jail if I vote here.”)

Inside, voters – a mix of Purdue students, faculty and staff – created consistent waits.

Evan Hockridge, a senior aviation major from Orange County, California, said he hadn’t planned to vote on Monday until he swung through Stewart Center on his way across campus.

“I definitely planned to vote,” Hockridge said. “It was right there, so why not?”

Hockridge said he’d heard “more people than usual” talking about the elections and that “people who definitely didn’t vote last time definitely are going to this time.”

Lucy Dillman, a junior studying human services, voted Monday after her dad, a Purdue employee, told her about the early voting site. Dillman, a McCutcheon High School graduate, said she wanted a say, in particular, in the Tippecanoe County sheriff’s race between Republican Jason Dombkowski and Democrat Bob Goldsmith.

“I feel like there’s more (student interest) now,” Dillman said. “When things don’t go your way, what else can you do but speak up. And this is the best way to make your voice heard.”

Tippecanoe County will hold one more day of early voting at Purdue on Oct. 25 at the Krach Leadership Center. The stations at four Greater Lafayette Pay Less Super Markets will open for a week, starting Oct. 27.

Based on what happened Monday at the Stewart Center and a steady flow, so far, at the County Office Building, Coffey was bracing.

“Big, big,” Coffey repeated as she packed equipment at Purdue. “Big for a midterm, at least. We’ll see if this holds.”

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WHAT YOU CAN DO: Election Day is Nov. 6. Here are some things to know.

Who is on your ballot: To get a ballot of candidates, along with Q&As, customized for your address, go to jconline.com and click on the link to this story.

Where to check your registration and polling places: Go to indianavoters.in.gov, a site maintained by the Indiana Secretary of State.

Where to vote early in Tippecanoe County: Early voting is available from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays at the county’s election office in the Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. For a complete list of early voting sites, go to www.tippecanoe.in.gov/449/Early-Voting-Schedule.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.