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May 2019 Voter Turnout Barely Improves Over Last Municipal Primaries

Only 13 percent of eligible, registered Hoosier voters could get stickers like these in the May 2019 primary elections.
Steve Burns/WTIU
Only 13 percent of eligible, registered Hoosier voters could get stickers like these in the May 2019 primary elections.

Just 13% of eligible, registered Hoosier voters cast a ballot in May’s municipal primaries.

That’s barely an improvement over the last municipal primary elections in 2015.

The numbers don’t include 23 counties that didn’t have primary elections this year.

Voter turnout in primaries is typically low – only one in five Hoosiers cast a ballot in May of 2018, which featured a competitive U.S. Senate primary. And the presidential primary in May 2016 only drew a little more than a third of eligible voters to the polls.

Martin and Rush counties posted the highest turnout this year, while Putnam and Tippecanoe counties came in the lowest, with just 2% turnout.

Brandon Smith has covered the Statehouse for Indiana Public Broadcasting for more than a decade, spanning three governors and a dozen legislative sessions. He's also the host of Indiana Week in Review, a weekly political and policy discussion program seen and heard across the state.
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