09
May
By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
May 9, 2024
Greg O’Brien, who has worked the polls in Seymour every election for the past 24 years, never saw the lull on Tuesday.
Typically, he said, voters come in waves with a morning rush followed by a lull, before the lunch-time crowd arrives. But on the May 7 primary day, the stream of voters flowing into the meeting room at the Jackson County Public Library never stopped. People were waiting outside when the doors opened for voting at 6 a.m. and by 12:40 p.m., 530 people had cast a ballot.
Voters in Seymour had many choices this primary. Their ballots included candidates for governor with Mike Braun capturing 40% of the votes, and candidates for the 9th congressional district, where incumbent Erin Houchins trounced her primary opponent by garnering 80% of the votes and will face a newcomer for the Democrats, Tim Peck, in the fall.
Beleaguered state Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, who made headlines for drunken driving last summer and flashing a gun to high school students in the Statehouse, fended off a primary challenge to win 58% of the votes. He will face Democrat Trish Whitcomb in the Nov. 5 general election.
Joyce Barnard, 77, of Seymour, immediately pasted her “I Voted” sticker on her blouse, after she cast her ballot. A long-time voter, Barnard said her top concern this election was illegal immigration.
“I don’t like illegals coming in here all the time,” Barnard said. “They scare me.”
As a teenager, she had supported John F. Kennedy when he ran for president in 1960. “I thought he was really good,” Barnard said. “He really was for the people and for the country.”
However, her affiliation with the Democratic Party stopped long ago and now she said she believes Biden is “giving away our country.” She is supporting Donald Trump, although she expressed a little impatience with the former president, saying she wishes he would “learn to know when to keep his mouth shut.”
Indiana Republicans voted overwhelmingly for Trump, giving him 78% of the vote over the 22% cast for former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was still on the GOP ballot even though she suspended her campaign.
Outside the library, county commissioner candidate Bret Cunningham agreed immigration was a big issue for voters in Jackson County. He credited “conservative leadership” with keeping local taxes low and bringing jobs to the community, but, he said, openings for unskilled labor and higher wages have been attracting an influx of immigrants from Mexico, Central America and South America since 2020.
Cunninghman, former Seymour City Council member, was greeting voters with a tub of peppermint candy. “Mint?” he asked to everyone who walked by.
A short distance away were Kinsley and Dysen Storey, the children of Cunningham’s opponent, Drew Storey. Kinsley, 13, said she is used to campaigning, having worked on her father’s and mother’s past races for public office, but this year, she said, she understood the process more.
Cunningham said he thought most voters were coming to the polls on Tuesday because of the governor’s race with six Republican candidates and the contest for state representative. Two “drastically different candidates” were vying for the House District 69 seat, he said, with voters concerned about Lucas’ antics but viewing his opponent, Brian Savilla, who settled in the district in 2021, as an “outsider.”
Cunningham was predicting a very close outcome. As for his choice in House District 69, Cunningham said, “I believe in term limits.”
Cunningham lost his bid for commissioner to current city council member, Drew Storey.
Across town at the Jackson County Learning Center, poll worker Monique Phegly said voters had been steady throughout the morning, reaching 300 by 11 a.m. A couple of people were waiting outside when the polls opened, she said, and at times during the morning, voters were standing in line, waiting for one of the 11 voting stations to become available.
As he exited the polling place, Ken Rodenberger, of Vallonia, snatched a strawberry from the table of food the poll workers had provided. His toy poodle, Lady, walked excitedly beside him. “She tells me how to vote,” he quipped.
Rodenberger, a regular voter, said the presidential election motivated him to navigate the morning rain and get to the polls to vote. “You want to make sure you get someone that stands for the things Indiana stands for,” he said.
The Republican candidates on his ballot, he said, were all different from each other and he did not agree with them on every issue, but, he said, they are “pretty good people.”
At the Indiana National Guard Armory in Salem, the polling place for precincts I, II, III and IV had seen about 400 voters by mid-afternoon, which poll worker Steve Gorman said was a “fairly typical” turnout. Eight first-time voters – all 18 years old – cast their ballots Tuesday, as the poll workers cheered and applauded.
Voters were given a paper ballot, which they marked with a pen and then slipped into the voting machine. Gorman and Cindy Ribelin, who said she has worked at the polls for more than 40 years, said the people coming to the polls were pleased Washington County had switched to paper ballots, instead of continuing to use the electronic voting machines.
In the parking lot, Rick and Michelle Milligan were conversing with voters and passing out name cards for their friend Tony Cardwell, Jr., who won the primary for Washington County commissioner for the third district. They said Salem voters were not so much motivated by state and national contests but rather by local issues and competitive local races.
Local problems, Rick Milligan said, are only going to be fixed by the local people. The state and federal government are not interested in finding a solution to a small community’s problems, he said.
During his campaign for the 9th congressional district’s Democratic nomination, Peck said he often found himself the lone Democrat speaking at community forums filled with Republican voters.
“I think a majority of people are very reasonable people,” he said, noting they first identify themselves by their family or job, rather than by their political party. “Just trying to reach people on that level, I have found so much understanding from voters.”
Dwight Adams, a freelance editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org
