Early voting in Indianapolis draws nearly 15,000 during weekend
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — There are restrictions on the number of people the Marion County Clerk’s Office can have inside any voting center due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Marion County has six early-voting centers, according to the clerk’s office, and each can handle 200 voters an hour. The early-voting centers are open from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
This weekend, close to 15,000 people voted, and the lines were long
On Monday morning outside the City-County Building, Ceola Cooper and her husband had been in line for 90 minutes to vote when they talked with News 8. They were hoping to vote in about 20 minutes.
“We decided prior to the weekend to wait until today,” Cooper said.
Over the weekend, the clerk’s office opened five additional voting centers: Krannert Park Community Center, Lawrence Township Education and Community Center, Perry Township Government Center, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, and Warren Township Government Center.
On Saturday, the wait time at Krannert Park Community center peaked at six hours.
Marion County Deputy Clerk Russell Hollis said, “We have express vote-touch-screen voting machines at all of our polling locations and we do position them so that our voters are not facing each other and they are at least 6 feet apart, and we are limited to the number of poll books we can have at any those voting sites as well primarily because of social distancing.”
Inside the clerk’s office, almost every square inch of floor space is being used for early voting. Due to COVID-19 health precautions, each table holds only one voting machine.
Hollis said, “We are close to maxed out with respect to the number of machines we can add at the other sites. We did add more machines on Sunday morning. We did see smaller wait times but ultimately it was a sea of voters that just flocked to all of our voting centers on Saturday.”
The clerk’s office can process 1,200 voters per hour through the six early-voting centers.
Jim Super of Indianapolis waited the better part of his morning to vote, he told News 8. He feared the lines would be even longer on Election Day.
“I don’t want to wait until the last minute,” Super said.
On Nov. 3, Election Day, 188 polling locations will open in Marion County. The sites will include Bankers Life Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium. The clerk’s office is preparing for long lines and reminds registered voters they can cast ballots Nov. 3 at any polling location in the county. Polls on Election Day will be open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m.