09

Staff Report

TheStatehouseFile

May 8, 2024

Statehouse File reporters talked to voters at polling places all over Marion and Johnson counties Tuesday—some 10 hours of asking what brought them out to vote when so many of their fellow Hoosiers stay home. Indiana ranks 50th among the 50 states and Washington D.C. for voter participation, after all.

Tuesday saw the culmination of some highly partisan primary races, but interestingly, many voters we talked to failed to name specific candidates as their main motivation for coming to the polls.

Tyrone Brown

Tyrone Brown, a transportation specialist in Indianapolis, has been a resident since 2006. Brown rode his bike 26 blocks to be able to vote.

“It’s important to get to feel like you’re a part of what’s going on and also to feel like you’re making a difference as far as picking the people that you think align with your kind of ideology,” he said.

“The biggest reason I think it’s important to vote is everybody has a difference of opinion as far as how much government intervention that there should be or how schools should be ran or, you know, what the budget should be to keep our infrastructure what it should be or whatever. So I think, you know, you should be able to pick the candidate that kind of aligns with your thought process.”

Brown said the issues that worry him most is employment and AI.

“I’m just worried about our jobs leaving, you know, the U.S.A., and I’m also worried about, you know, if we’re going to have enough jobs for the people that we do have here. So, you know, AI and technology getting to be what it is … I worry every day,” he said.

—DeMarion Newell 

Gabriel Lewis

A few hours after wrapping up his 46-page senior psychology thesis, Gabriel Lewis took a break from school to exercise his right to vote.

“I will say that politics has always been something I’m interested in, the people that run the and how the whole system works,” he said.

Twenty years old, turning 21 in less than a week, Lewis wished that more young people would go to the polls.

“I think it’s the wrong opinion [not to vote] because there are people that literally fought and died for the right to vote, for a sacred duty to be exercised, and for people to squander that … It’s unfortunate,” he said. “And so it’s just, it’s just a wrong opinion for me.”

—Arianna Hunt

Rochelle Fox

Rochelle Fox, who was running to be a Marion County Republican Convention delegate for district 5, said she is tired of politics as usual and the lack of progress addressing social issues.

“We’re tired of it. It hasn’t gotten us anywhere,” she said. “So we’re just, you know, I’m just out here trying to speak for other people. People are afraid to speak up, and I don’t know why. … I just use my words and the knowledge that I have to try to straighten out situations. Like I tell people who they need to talk to, and what they need to do when they’re in a situation.”

Fox added: “I live in an apartment building and the people are just so broken, so broken because it’s subsidized. … So I have Democrats and Republicans coming to me because they know I advocate, I’ve been advocating for a long time.

“[Mayor Joe Hogsett] is not looking out for the people. He’s looking out for a group of people, but it’s not us.”

The issue especially close to Fox’s heart is homelessness

“Let your voice be heard,” she said. “Don’t just complain about it, and ignoring the poor people on the street. They’re still human.”

—DeMarion Newell

Tim White

Tim White cast his first vote via absentee ballot when he was a new Army recruit.

“When I joined the Army in 1971, I was only 17. So, you had to be 19 years old to be shipped off to Vietnam. And so when I finished basic training, I wasn’t even 18 yet. So then my first assignment, it was to go to Germany,” he said.

“Sixty years later, and I’m still voting every year.”

During his time in Germany, White began studying martial arts, which led to his induction into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Now he runs a martial arts studio in downtown Franklin.

White’s military career took him from Korea to Kansas before settling back in his home state, but his long journey never stopped him from casting his vote.

“You know, voting is one of your God-given rights in the United States; you know, it’s one of those inalienable rights to vote,” White said. “And I would say that, if you don’t want to vote, probably there’s not a candidate that stands for what you want.

“But you should do your civic duty and get out and vote for the person who is closest to that.”

—Arianna Hunt

Steven and Amy Park

Steven and Amy Park, parents to three kids, don’t approve of straight-ticket voting

“There’s just too many issues to where, you know, it’s just not a black and white line, in my opinion,” said Amy.

“That’s what we talk about all the time with our kids. You know, everybody thinks there’s these two areas, but there’s really a big group in the middle where most of us fall into, and if you vote straight ticket, you can’t cover that group in the middle” said Steven.

“So you need to kind of do your research and find what they stand for, to make sure they align, at least close to.”

The Parks try to stress to their kids the importance of voting to have a voice.

“I just feel like what we try to convey to our kids is that you are a part of something bigger that’s going on around you, and you have a voice, and you have a choice in what that’s going on around you is. And if you don’t make that voice heard, I mean, bad things can happen,” said Amy.

Steven believes young people are discouraged from voting because of social media and the state’s political history.

“I think that there’s a lot of, you know, with so much on social media and things like that. A lot of young kids think that their vote doesn’t count, especially in a state like Indiana that’s predominantly Republican,” Steven said. “The reality is if you educate yourself and you go vote for what you stand behind, you know your guy might not win this time, but at least you’re educated and at least you’re informed and at least you’re casting a vote.

“And eventually the only way you’re going to make change, if you truly want change, is to continue to vote until that change happens.”

—Arianna Hunt

Sara Copp