GOP on lowest voter rate in Vanderburgh County's history: 'It's frightening'

The voter turnout rate — 25.9 percent on Tuesday — was likely the worst in Vanderburgh County history for a midterm election with only 37,220 people casting ballots.

Voter registration in the county, though, is the highest it’s ever been with 143,605 voters listed on the state’s registry. However, the voter logs likely contain many people who don’t live in the county anymore, Parke said. According to U.S. Census data, only 141,000 people 18 years old and older live here.

Even considering inflated voter registration totals, it was still the lowest total number of voters to come out for Election Day since 1926. On average, roughly 50,000 voters participate in midterm elections in the county.

So why the sorry showing at the polls on Tuesday? Parke said he didn’t know what an exact cause would be.

“It appears that people do not know who’s running, they don’t spend enough time trying to understand the issues and that they are afraid to vote because they’re afraid to make a mistake or they don’t think their vote counts or matters,” he said.

Rob Faulkner, who heads the Vanderburgh County Democratic Party, chalked it up to a number of causes, including a slew of negative advertising, voter frustration with the federal government and a local ballot with no large races.

He noted there was no presidential or gubernatorial race, no U.S. Senate contest and no referendum questions on the local ballot.

But Parke scoffed at the notion people didn’t turnout because of a lack of contested races on the ballot.

“That is bologna,” Parke said. “My gosh, U.S. congressman, County Commissioner, County Council people, those are critical, important jobs that impact people,” he said.

In many local races, though, candidates were unopposed.

Three of the four County Council seats that were up for grabs went uncontested with Republicans claiming the races. Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann was unopposed as well, and the same is true for County Assessor. At the state level, state Sen. Jim Tomes and Rep. Tom Washburne were without opposition.

Of those who did vote, 40 percent chose a straight-party ticket, more than any recent midterm election.

The race mostly likely to have pulled in voters was for the Vanderburgh County Sheriff, Parke said, but even with the hundreds of campaign signs plotted across the county and commercials hitting the airwaves, the numbers just weren’t there.

Kirk Byram was defeated by incumbent Dave Wedding for sheriff when the Republican only pulled in 40 percent of the vote.

Byram worked hard, said Parke, and the chairman thought the sheriff’s office lieutenant was going to have a better showing.

“I think that he could never overcome that bankruptcy,” Parke said.

Byram’s 2008 personal bankruptcy was publicly revealed by the Courier & Press in August.

“Our indications were that Wedding was ahead, but it was possible Kirk could pull it out,” he said. “We also believed there had to be a good strong voter turnout for that to happen. It was not a good and strong turnout.”

Faulkner said it wasn’t the bankruptcy that did Byram in — it was his unpaid $140,000 loan from his mother to the business owned by Byram, his wife and his brother that cost the 44-year-old the election.

“He could file bankruptcy and be fine, but that he walked away from a $140,000 loan from his mom. I think that’s what did it,” Faulkner said.

With the 2014 general election behind them, both party heads are now affixed to 2015 for the city elections, when voters will choose who sits on the City Council and who is mayor.

No Democrat has officially put their name in for the mayoral race to assumingly face incumbent Republican Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, who has not formally announced he’s seeking re-election.

Republicans, however, are working to identify candidates to run for City Council, which Democrats currently control by an 8-1 margin.

“I’m not prepared to say or comment names, but we are in that process. We want good, rounded people to run,” Parke said.