Heavy early voting by Montgomery County residents helped push the county toward a 67% voter turnout in this year’s general election.
Of the county’s 25,094 registered voters, a total of 16,742 ballots were cast Tuesday.
Heading into election day, county residents cast 10,423 ballots. This includes early, mail-in and absentee votes. By 3 p.m. Tuesday, in-person voting added 5,000 more ballots to that total, and by the time the polls closed at 6 p.m. another 1,300 ballots were cast.
Voter turnout was slightly higher during the last presidential election in 2020. During that cycle, nearly 14,000 early votes were cast, and in-person voting added another 3,400.
In the 2020 election cycle there were several local contested races, however, this election cycle has just two contested races for school board. Furthermore, the global pandemic also can be attributed to the higher early and absentee numbers.
Montgomery County Clerk Sondra Dittmer Sixberry said she was pleased with the overall voter turnout and was relieved that the process ran smoothly.
Poll workers from the Whitesville vote center were the first to arrive at the courthouse shortly after 7 p.m. Forty minutes later poll workers from the North Montgomery vote center arrived with their ballots. Poll workers from Rock Point and the Fairgrounds vote center arrived with their ballots at 7:50 p.m. and 7:55 p.m. About 20 minutes later the unofficial summary report was created and distributed.
Sixberry thanked all the poll workers and office staff for their work, calling it a “team effort.”
TOP OF THE TICKET
As expected, the race for the nation’s top office was the biggest draw for local voters. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance carried Montgomery County with 12,115 votes (72.91%) compared to Democrat candidate Kamala Harris and Tim Walz who had 4,130 votes (24.86%). Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan from the We the People party had 200 votes (1.20%) and Libertarians Chase Oliver and Mike Ter Maat had 116 votes (.70%).
On Tuesday night, Trump and Vance won the state, earning Indiana’s 11 electoral votes. By early morning Wednesday, Trump was projected to have won back the White House, making him only the second U.S. President in history to win two, non-consecutive terms in office. Grover Cleveland was the first in the late 19th century.
Another draw for residents to head to the polls was to select a new governor and lieutenant governor. Republican Mike Braun and Micah Beckwith carried the county with 10,735 votes (64.97%) compared to former Republican turned Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Terry Goodin who had 4,437 votes (26.85%). Libertarian candidate Donald Rainwater and Tony Hudson had 1,348 votes (8.16%). By late Tuesday, Braun and Beckwith were declared the winners.
For Attorney General, Republican Todd Rokita carried the county with 11,816 votes (72.7%) compared to Democrat Destiny Wells 4,437 (27.3%). Rokita, the incumbent, was declared the winner.
In the U.S. District 4 congressional seat race, Republican Jim Baird carried the county with 12,188 votes (74.3%) over Democrat Derrick Holder who had 3,506 votes (21.38%) and Libertarian Ashley Groff who had 695 votes (4.24%). Baird was declared the overall winner.
In the U.S. Senate race, Republican Jim Banks carried the county with 12,093 votes (73.83%) over Democrat Valerie McCray with 3,803 votes (23.22%) and Libertarian Andrew Horning with 478 votes (2.92%). Banks won the seat quickly and decisively Tuesday.
In the State Representative District 13 race, Republican Matthew Commons carried the county with 589 votes over Democrat Edward Moyer Jr. who had 127 votes (17.74%); and in the State Representative District 41 race, Republican Mark Genda carried the county with 195 votes (84.42%) over Democrat Dan Sikes who had 36 votes (15.58%). Both Commons and Genda prevailed overall.
Republicans Beau Baird, State Representative from District 44, and Brian Buchanan, State Representative from District 7, were unopposed.
SCHOOL BOARD
The only contested races were for two non-partisan board of trustee seats in the South Montgomery School Corporation. Incumbent Daryl Hutson had 2,523 votes (61.24%) over challenger Brevan T. Cornelius who had 1,597 votes (38.76%) for the Ripley Township seat. Jason Bannon had 2,526 votes (59.05%) and defeated Cody Hargis who had 1,752 votes (40.95%) for the Scott Township seat. Julie Hess ran unopposed for the Union Township seat.
Crawfordsville had two at-large seats open. Incumbents Susan Albrecht and Steve McLaughlin ran unopposed.
In the North Montgomery district there were three seats open and all three incumbents, Jess Cain (at-large seat), Karin Odle (Madison Township seat) and Darrin Bechtel (Union Township seat) ran unopposed.
COUNTY LEVEL
Several candidates at the county level ran unopposed.
Republican Sixberry was elected Montgomery County Circuit Court Clerk. She was placed in the position this summer by a GOP caucus after she secured the party’s nomination in May and after the office was vacated by her primary election opponent.
Jake Bohlander was the only candidate for Montgomery County Commissioner, District 1, and Dan Guard was the only candidate for Montgomery County Commissioner, District 3.
Republicans Gary Booth, David Hunt and Mike Warren were the only candidates for the three at-large seats on the Montgomery County Council.
Republican Nancy Cox was the only candidate for Montgomery County Recorder and Republican Tom Cummins was the only candidate for Montgomery County Surveyor. Republican Steve Gressmire was the only candidate for Montgomery County Coroner.
PUBLIC QUESTION
There was one Indiana constitutional amendment question on the ballot regarding the line of succession.
Voters were asked to remove the State Superintendent of Education from the list of five other top state officials who would need to step into the governor’s role under extreme circumstances. The position of Superintendent of Education no longer exists in Indiana.
If voters approve the amendment change, the state superintendent of public instruction will be removed from the succession list. State legislatures want to update the outdated language in the constitution.
Montgomery County voters responding “yes” with 7,790 votes (51.71%) compared to 7,272 “no” votes (48.29 %) .
Voters also voted to retain the three Indiana Supreme Court justices — Chief Justice Loretta Rush, Justice Mark Massa and Justice Derek Molter with vote totals of 71-72%.
Vote totals to retain Court of Appeals judges Rudolph Pyle and Peter Foley were 72-73%.
