Published: May 07, 2008 12:19 pm         

County sees big turnout

Clerk pleased with positive feedback on vote centers

As the employees in the Cass County clerk’s office were waiting for election results Tuesday night, they were flipping through stacks of comment cards left by voters at the various vote centers.

The cards listed a seven-point numerical scale to grade several areas, like location and poll worker knowledge, as well as space for comments.

Flipping through, card after card showed high marks and positive comments from voters regarding the new vote center concept.

“A minute ago, someone handed me one with a 7+++,” said Cass County Clerk Linda Crimmins. “I would say 90 percent at least were very positive. It’s wonderful.”

The concept is still in its experimental stage statewide as only two other counties — Tippecanoe and Wayne — also used the concept. The others had also used vote centers in last November’s general election with good success, leading Secretary of State Todd Rokita to expand the program this year to include a third county.

Crimmins said she was pleased with how the vote centers worked.

“I really am so happy and so proud,” said Crimmins. “The poll workers all worked very hard and the community accepted it. ... I could not imagine that the secretary of state could be any happier with Cass County.”

In Cass County, the two most popular vote center locations were at the Logansport Mall and the Cass County Senior Center where 2,492 people voted.

Turnout there and at the five other locations throughout the county had the heaviest traffic in the three hours before polls closed at 6 p.m.

Crimmins said that did lead to lines at times throughout the day, but unlike the general election four years ago when people reported waits of two to three hours, most voters had to wait only 10 to 15 minutes to cast ballots.

Not only did the vote center concept allow county voters to cast ballots at any of seven locations, they also had the opportunity to vote on one of four different days.

Though Crimmins said some people took advantage of the early voting opportunity, the first three days the vote centers were open were fairly quiet.

But absentee voting overall, which has been open since April 7, did draw large numbers as 5,272 people cast ballots during the absentee and early voting periods. The totals were nearly 10 times those of the 2004 election, when just 576 people voted absentee.

Voter turnout overall was 10,655, up dramatically from four years ago when 6,028 people cast ballots.

Many people felt the Democratic presidential primary was the biggest factor in the high turnout.

“Clearly the Obama-Clinton race is the force behind the voting numbers,” said Democratic Party Chairman Matt Meagher. “But the voting centers are also clearly a push for more votes.”

The hype surrounding the presidential race seemed to sway many traditionally Republican voters to cast ballots on the Democratic side. Nearly two-thirds of Cass County voters cast a Democratic ballot in this primary.

The switch was a surprise for many Republicans.

“I thought the Republicans wouldn’t cross the party line,” said Randy Head, who won the Republican Senate District 18 nomination. “There are a lot of typically Republican voters that I didn’t think would cross over. But Democrats and Republicans both wanted to have their say and that drove the turnout.”

Carla Knapp can be contacted at (574) 732-5150 or via e-mail at carla.knapp@pharostribune.com