CLARK COUNTY, Ind. — On Tuesday, Indiana residents were ready to select their nominees for several government seats to be decided this November. From local representatives to President of the United States, several major races are on the ballot.
There are six Republicans and one Democrat vying for the governor's seat currently held by Republican Eric Holcomb.
Southern Indiana residents endured the rain to make their voices heard. The Clark County Voter Registration Office said over 93,000 people are eligible to vote in their area.
On Thursday, Clark County Clerk Ryan Lynch said more than 15,000 people voted in the primary, a 16% voter turnout. According to Lynch, 70% of voters were Republican and less than 30% were Democrats.
Jeffersonville resident Paula Bartlett was one of those residents and said she voted for a candidate that will bring more funding to her community.
"Most of the money, they pay attention more to northern Indiana and I think southern Indiana gets left out," Bartlett said. "I voted for someone who is kind of midway in the state and is familiar with this area."
Lynch said close to 6,500 people had checked in by lunch hour Tuesday. That includes early and absentee voters.
"We really do see a big jump kind of at the end of the day," Lynch said. "Between three and six p.m. some people are leaving work early, some people just leave work at their normal time. But that end of day rush is usually a little bit bigger than that lunch spike."
Lynch also said this year's races helped bring in bigger numbers to the polls.
"It's a little bit more than what it was in 2022 and around the same as 2020," Lynch said. "We kind of expected it to be a little higher with it being a presidential year and with it being a fairly contested governor race as well."
Kentucky's Primary Election is coming up on Tuesday, May 21.
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.