Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Thomas McDermott Jr. takes a selfie Oct. 28, 2022, while casting his ballot as an early voter at the Lake County Superior Court building in Hammond. Indiana's voter turnout in this year's election was just 41% of the state's 4.77 million registered voters. Dan Carden, file, The Times
Editor's note:
I am writing in response to the article published in the Indiana Economic Digest. Apparently, Decatur Counties totals are incorrect in the State System. For some reason it states we have 34,000 voters which is completely incorrect. Our voter register only consist of 17,188 total voters for Decatur County. I am working with the State of Indiana to correct the issue as quickly as possible. If you could check back on the data at a later time so you can obtain the correct totals once we get it corrected in the system.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Adina A. Roberts
Decatur County Circuit Court Clerk
Nearly 6 in 10 Hoosiers chose to neglect their civic duty by failing to vote in this year's general election.
Data compiled by the Indiana Election Division show voter turnout at the Nov. 8 election was 41% of the 4.77 million adults registered to vote in the state.
That's down from Indiana's 65% turnout in 2020 when contests for president and governor were on the ballot. Presidential election years typically see higher turnout than midterm elections.
But this year's turnout also was one-fifth less than Indiana's 51% participation rate in the most recent midterm election in 2018.
Records show statewide voter turnout in other midterm elections this century totaled 30% in 2014, 41% in 2010, 40% in 2006, and 39% in 2002.
Voter turnout in Northwest Indiana this year varied by county. But there's little indication that the most expensive 1st District U.S. House race in history had any impact on voter participation.
In Lake County, a total of 136,315 voters cast a ballot out of 369,255 eligible citizens registered to vote for a 2022 turnout rate of 37%, records show.
That's down from Lake County's 47% turnout in 2018.
At the same time, more Lake County voters took advantage of in-person early voting or mail-in voting opportunities this year as 35% of voters marked their ballot prior to Election Day, compared to 30% in 2018.
Records show voter turnout in Porter County this year was 44%, down from 53% in 2018. LaPorte County's voter participation was 41% — equal to the statewide turnout rate — compared to 49% in 2018.
Porter and LaPorte counties also saw gains in early and mail-in voting, with both types of absentee ballots accounting this year for 40% of Porter County's total, up from 28% four years ago, and 32% of the ballots in LaPorte County, up from 27% in 2018.
Three southern Indiana counties tied at 51% for the highest voter turnout in the state this year: Crawford, Spencer and Union.
Decatur County, located on Interstate 74 about halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, Ohio, saw the state's lowest voter turnout at 24%, records show. (See Editor's Note).
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