By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — Significant early voting in recent weeks in Kosciusko County does not seem to have eased turnout today at voter centers as Americans weigh in on the much-anticipated presidential election and other races.
One anecdotal case could be seen at the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion in Warsaw where a line of people waiting to vote extended out the door — something that normally does not happen there.
“There was 29 people waiting in line at 6 a.m. and the line has not gotten any shorter,” said Paul Schmitt, the election inspector at the pavilion.
He’s worked elections for 20 years and said today’s traffic has been “overwhelming” compared to the normal pace.
Regardless, he said he’s happy to see the strong turnout.
One poll worker said they thought early voting would slacken the pace but added they had not had a break yet as of 9:30 a.m.
Kosciusko County Clerk Ann Torpy reports the county experienced record-setting early voting ahead of today’s election.
“Early voting walk-in voters, we had 13,674,” Torpy said Monday afternoon.
The pre-election day turnout comes after officials saw a strong increase in voter registration.
Voter centers are scheduled to close at 6 p.m.
