By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — The 2024 Election in Kosciusko County might be remembered as the least competitive local race that nonetheless attracted a robust voter turnout.
Slightly more than 65 percent of registered voters cast ballots and more than one in four of them (28 percent) did so through absentee and early voting.
County Clerk Ann Torpy said the level of early voting this year was similar to what happened in 2020 — during the pandemic. The county saw more people register to vote and more doing so early in the process.
She thinks the early voting trend could continue to grow.
“I think with the media and the social media talking more about early voting, more people see how easy it is (and that) they have a whole month to do it,” Torpy said.
Much of the widespread voter interest was driven by the match-up between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump who was declared the winner at around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and ended up attracting 74.8 percent of the vote in Kosciusko County.
Trump also appears to have won the popular vote and easily won the electoral college.
Local winners and newcomers
In the two local races with challengers, Randy Polston was re-elected to his District 4 school board seat for Warsaw Community Schools by capturing 79 percent, and state representative Craig Sbow was re-elected to his District 22 seat with 86 percent of the vote against Libertarian Josh Vergiels.
Three Republicans ran for three at-large county council seats and claimed victory. Those include incumbent Kathy Groninger and newcomers Delynn Geiger and Rachael Rhoades.
Other Republicans winning in their first electoral bid on Tuesday include Melissa Boggs, a deputy clerk who steps in for Torpy who is term-limited; Matthew Buehler the future circuit court judge and James Moyer as county surveyor.
Longtime public servant Sue Ann Mitchel — also a Republican — who sits on the county council, was elected as county commissioner for the northern district, replacing Republican Brad Jackson who is retiring after 28 years.
Kosciusko County Republican Chairman Mike Ragan said he was pleased with the success of fellow Republicans as well as the strong turnout.
He was asked about the lack of challengers from the Democrat party.
“I think Democrats have become so divisive and so far to the left that it’s just difficult for people not to vote our way,” Ragan said.
Vote centers
Many vote centers saw people lined up for much of the day.
In fact, shortly after 5 p.m., a poll worker at the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion in Warsaw reminded those standing in line in drizzly conditions outside that they could head over to the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds, where there was no waiting line.
That kind of flexibility in determining where to vote is the result of establishing vote centers, which allows registered voters to choose their voting location within the county.
Torpy led the implementation of vote centers a few years ago. While it’s voter-friendly, she said she thinks reducing the number of polling places from 61 to 21 vote centers makes the overall management easier for the county but that it has placed more work on poll workers who now see more traffic in the condensed arrangement.
Because of that, they’ve worked to provide more poll workers, she said.
“I think they’re successful, but I don’t work out in the field,” Torpy said.
She said a lot of voters have thanked her office for vote centers because of the increased convenience and that she thinks the vote center concept is here to stay.
Celebrating new voters
Poll workers at the Community Life Center Church on North Harrison Street stayed busy throughout the day but made an effort to vocally cheer those in line who were identified as first-time voters.
More than two dozen voters were briefly serenaded for their participation including four in about ten minutes in the final hour.
“We’ve tried to do that to really celebrate the amount of new people coming out to vote so they feel encouragement to come out and vote again,” said a poll judge, Alicia Mediano.
One of those recipients of praise was 19-year-old Kalila Bayless who was caught off guard by the momentary celebration but thought the encouragement was “awesome.”
Asked why she felt impelled to vote, Bayless said, “The state of our government now.”
At some vote centers, somewhat short lines persisted for much of the day.
That was the case at Center Lake Pavilion.
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Shortly after 5 p.m., Election workers began encouraging those standing in line outside the pavilion to cast votes at the Kosciuwsko County fairgrounds, which had no lines at the time.
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At Community life center church on North Harrison Street, the atmosphere was professional but also upbeat as election works celebrated each time they identified q first time voter.
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