Election Day results in Evansville, Indiana

EVANSVILLE – Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? In fact, Tuesday’s election will answer many more questions.

Indiana voters will choose officials from the president to the school board – at the federal, state and local levels, partisan and non-partisan.

Vanderburgh County is in hot competition for a judge position and a seat on the school board, and it’s just an election that doesn’t feature Republican or Democratic candidates. Warrick County will replace two-thirds of its executive governing body.

In addition to a new president, Indiana will get a new governor and a new U.S. senator. With longtime 8th District Congressman Larry Bucshon relinquishing his spurs after 14 years, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey and Gibson counties will be represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by someone new.

There are a lot of things to keep track of. Here are some key things to watch on Tuesday.

Does national turnout affect local races?

One look at the modern political history of Vanderburgh County makes it clear that just as national elections work, so do local elections. Most of the time.

1994 was a banner year for Republicans across the country and in Vanderburgh County. This year, Republican John Hostetler was elected to Congress for the first time to represent the 8th District. And Hostettler continued to win. That was until 2006, when he recruited then-Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth as an opponent and crashed headlong into the national Democratic conversation. That same year, Republicans lost 31 seats in the US House of Representatives.

Perhaps the decisive factor was the war in Iraq. And it had an impact locally.

Fueled by a national wave of support for Democrats opposed to American involvement in Iraq under Republican President George W. Bush, Democrats have pushed local GOP candidates in Vanderburgh County from the congressional level to the township level. In the 8th District, Ellsworth defeated Hostettler by a 61-39% margin, the largest margin of any incumbent in the country.

The Democratic wave was so strong that 28-year-old former retail saleswoman Linda Durham shocked leaders of both major parties – and herself – when she ousted veteran Republican Knight Township Trustee Jim Price by 29 votes. Democrat Durham spent just $5 on her campaign.

2010 was a different year both nationally and locally.

Republicans took control of the US House of Representatives with a staggering 63 seats and made gains in the US Senate in the midterm elections. That was the year Republican Bucshon won the 8th District seat held by Ellsworth, who had lost a statewide race for U.S. Senate that same year.

That same year, Republican challengers ousted Democratic incumbents in hotly contested races for the positions of Vanderburgh County assessor, prosecutor and commissioner. Like the bowling pins, Democratic candidates for local, legislative and statewide offices also fell.

Ask Ellsworth whether voters’ preferences in national elections can influence their voting behavior when local names are on the ballot.

Heading into the 2010 midterm elections, Ellsworth had never lost an election. But in Indiana’s U.S. Senate election that year, the popular former sheriff lost Vanderburgh County to Republican Dan Coates of Fort Wayne by eight percentage points.

That year, Republicans won 56% of the straight-ticket votes cast in Vanderburgh County.

Party identification is a powerful voting signal for most voters, said Bob Dion, a political scientist at the University of Evansville. And straight-ticket voting, Dionne said, is a major obstacle for local Democratic candidates in heavily Republican Vanderburgh County.

“So you have not just a party signal, but also – in times of hyper-partisanship – a mechanism for voters to vote for all members of the same party,” said an EU political scientist. “This is unusual. But if you grew up here, it’s part of the atmosphere.

“It becomes difficult for any Democrat to win now that these straight-ticket ballot measures have been eliminated.”

Don’t forget about non-partisan races

Voters must abandon their ballots to participate in nonpartisan school board and judicial elections in Vanderburgh County. Straight party voting does not prevent voters from voting in nonpartisan races, but they must find those races on their ballots and make their choices individually.

This year, Superior Court Judge Molly Briles and state Rep. Ryan Hatfield are vying to replace longtime Circuit Court Judge David Kiely upon his retirement.

Three candidates are vying for two EVSC school board seats in District 3. School board candidates represent districts, but their seats are voted on districtwide.

The candidates are: Josh Barnett, vice president of Evansville-based basketball media company SLAM Media; Amy DeVries, Development and Outreach Coordinator, Pro Bono Indiana, Inc.; and Terry Gamblin, who served on the board for 36 years.

While nonpartisan, school board and judicial elections generally do not attract as many voters as elections involving Republicans, Democrats and other parties.

In 2020, the most recent presidential election year, a total of 78,718 Vanderburgh County voters cast ballots in partisan races. In a four-way race for two school board seats that year in District 3, Amy Ward received the most votes, with 31,094 votes. Gamblin received the second most votes, with 26,250. Even if we assume that all voters marked only Ward and Gamblin (which is unlikely), no more than 57,344 votes were cast in the race.

School board member Karen Ragland, who ran unopposed for District 1, received nearly 44,300 votes in 2020.

In 2018, the last time Keeley sought re-election as a judge, he ran unopposed. He received 35,112 votes out of 59,028 cast.

These races will make a splash

The most high-profile local elections will decide who will become the next Vanderburgh County Circuit Court judge and who will join the Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners as the new representative for District 3. Both elections are countywide.

These are “open seat” races, meaning incumbents are not on the ballot Tuesday and will make way for new incumbents regardless of who wins.

The Briles-Hatfield Circuit Court judge’s race will bring a new judge to a court system that has continually struggled with overcrowded schedules and trial delays. It will also mean the end of the road for the retiring Keeley.

Keeley was elected as a circuit court judge in 2012, completing his previous service as a Superior Court judge and circuit court magistrate. Shortly thereafter, he created the state’s first Veterans Court, earning him the James Bethel Gresham Award from the Evansville Bar Association.

Keeley’s tenure has been marked over the past few years by problems surrounding the County Probation Department, which he oversees. About nine years ago, he struck a no-bid, no-contract deal to outsource the testing and monitoring work to Evansville-based ABK Tracking: a private company owned by his friend Danny Koester.

The ABC became the center of a years-long Courier & Press investigation and ultimately prompted a federal lawsuit filed by the national nonprofit Equal Justice Under Law. He accused ABK, Keeley and by extension the county of attempting to “extort” money from low-income residents who were ordered to report to ABK for electronic home detention and drug testing.

Briles and Hatfield answered a Courier & Press Q&A this election season, including questions about ABK and how to handle contracts in the courts.

Voters choosing the next District 3 commissioner will choose between Democrat Hope Fassner and Republican Amy Canterbury. Whoever wins will replace Republican Cheryl Musgrave, who lost the GOP primary race against Canterbury.

In this race, Democrats have a chance to gain a majority on the three-member Board of Commissioners, the executive governing body of county government.

If Canterbury wins, Republicans will retain their majority on the commission.

Warrick County to elect new leaders amid criminal charges

Warrick County’s three-member executive governing body will have a new majority no matter who wins the county’s two contested elections for seats on the Board of Commissioners. That’s because two current Warrick County commissioners who sought re-election despite facing criminal charges were defeated in the Republican primary in May.

Sarah Millis-Seaton won a landslide victory over incumbent Commissioner Dan Saylor, who was seeking re-nomination by the GOP. Warrick County Republican voters also chose by a wide margin not to renominate Commissioner Bob Johnson, choosing challenger Stacy Franz instead.

Democrats have nominated former Tennyson City Councilman Tony Curtis to fill the seat being sought by Republican Frantz. Homebuilder John T. Mattingly represents Democrats against Millis-Seaton.

Saylor and Johnson will be replaced by whoever wins the general election in January, but given Warrick County’s propensity to vote Republican, the odds are stacked against Democrats Curtis and Mattingly.

In 2020, the most recent presidential election, then-Republican President Donald Trump won 63% of the vote in Warrick County. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb did even better, winning 68% of the votes cast. 8th District Republican Congressman Bucshon got 67%.

Warrick County Commissioners Saylor, Johnson and Terry Phillip, who were not on Tuesday’s ballot, were charged in February with official misconduct, a Level 6 felony, and one misdemeanor of false information after they were caught trapped during an Indiana State Police investigation into Warrick. County Animal Control and Health Departments. Phillip faces an additional charge of making false statements, according to court records.

Their cases continued to work their way through the court system.

How will votes be received at the local level?

Bipartisan groups of election officials are beginning to open mailed absentee ballots on the morning of Election Day.

Indiana voters have until 6:00 pm on Election Day to return their mailed absentee ballots. U.S. Postal Service officials advise mailing it at least a week before Election Day to ensure it arrives on time.

Votes cast early and in person are held until Election Day.

“We’re starting to open and process them and then tabulate them (on Election Day),” said Kenneth Grant, Vanderburgh County’s first deputy clerk of elections. “Nothing will be published until 18:00 (polls close)”