By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw

WARSAW — The 2024 Election in Kosciusko County might be remembered as the least competitive local race that nonetheless attracted a robust voter turnout.

Slightly more than 65 percent of registered voters cast ballots and more than one in four of them (28 percent) did so through absentee and early voting.

County Clerk Ann Torpy said the level of early voting this year was similar to what happened in 2020 — during the pandemic. The county saw more people register to vote and more doing so early in the process.

She thinks the early voting trend could continue to grow.

"I think with the media and the social media talking more about early voting, more people see how easy it is (and that) they have a whole month to do it," Torpy said.

Much of the widespread voter interest was driven by the match-up between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump who was declared the winner at around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and ended up attracting 74.8 percent of the vote in Kosciusko County.

Trump also appears to have won the popular vote and easily won the electoral college.

Local winners and newcomers

In the two local races with challengers, Randy Polston was re-elected to his District 4 school board seat for Warsaw Community Schools by capturing 79 percent, and state representative Craig Sbow was re-elected to his District 22 seat with 86 percent of the vote against Libertarian Josh Vergiels.

Three Republicans ran for three at-large county council seats and claimed victory. Those include incumbent Kathy Groninger and newcomers Delynn Geiger and Rachael Rhoades.

Other Republicans winning in their first electoral bid on Tuesday include Melissa Boggs, a deputy clerk who steps in for Torpy who is term-limited; Matthew Buehler the future circuit court judge and James Moyer as county surveyor.

Longtime public servant Sue Ann Mitchel — also a Republican — who sits on the county council, was elected as county commissioner for the northern district, replacing Republican Brad Jackson who is retiring after 28 years.

Kosciusko County Republican Chairman Mike Ragan said he was pleased with the success of fellow Republicans as well as the strong turnout.

He was asked about the lack of challengers from the Democrat party.

"I think Democrats have become so divisive and so far to the left that it's just difficult for people not to vote our way," Ragan said.

Vote centers

Many vote centers saw people lined up for much of the day.

In fact, shortly after 5 p.m., a poll worker at the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion in Warsaw reminded those standing in line in drizzly conditions outside that they could head over to the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds, where there was no waiting line.

That kind of flexibility in determining where to vote is the result of establishing vote centers, which allows registered voters to choose their voting location within the county.

Torpy led the implementation of vote centers a few years ago. While it's voter-friendly, she said she thinks reducing the number of polling places from 61 to 21 vote centers makes the overall management easier for the county but that it has placed more work on poll workers who now see more traffic in the condensed arrangement.

Because of that, they've worked to provide more poll workers, she said.

"I think they're successful, but I don't work out in the field," Torpy said.

She said a lot of voters have thanked her office for vote centers because of the increased convenience and that she thinks the vote center concept is here to stay.

Celebrating new voters

Poll workers at the Community Life Center Church on North Harrison Street stayed busy throughout the day but made an effort to vocally cheer those in line who were identified as first-time voters.

More than two dozen voters were briefly serenaded for their participation including four in about ten minutes in the final hour.

"We've tried to do that to really celebrate the amount of new people coming out to vote so they feel encouragement to come out and vote again," said a poll judge, Alicia Mediano.

One of those recipients of praise was 19-year-old Kalila Bayless who was caught off guard by the momentary celebration but thought the encouragement was "awesome."

Asked why she felt impelled to vote, Bayless said, "The state of our government now."

At some vote centers, somewhat short lines persisted for much of the day. 

That was the case at Center Lake Pavilion. 

Audio

Shortly after 5 p.m., Election workers began encouraging those standing in line outside the pavilion to cast votes at the Kosciuwsko County fairgrounds, which had no lines at the time.

Audio

At Community life  center church on North Harrison Street, the atmosphere was professional but also upbeat as election works celebrated each time they identified q first time voter.

Audio

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WARSAW — In the only contested local race, three-term incumbent Randy Polston cruised to victory and will continue as the District 4 school board member for Warsaw Community Schools.

Polston won 79 percent of the vote on Tuesday night in a challenge from Emerson Poort.

Poort campaigned against Polston’s support of a mask mandate during the pandemic.

Polston defended the move in a 6-1 vote four years ago, saying it followed guidance from the state and was a common sense move to protect children, teachers and staff.

In a phone call Tuesday night, Polston was appreciative of the support from voters.

Polston is a former teacher, coach and principal.

"Oh, I'm just over the top excited for the support in our community," Polston said. "You see those votes come in at 80 percent, it just really, really touches my heart."

Polston is term-limited after he serves his upcoming fourth term.

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With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

The victory validates his bare-knuckle approach to politics. He attacked his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in deeply personal – often misogynistic and racist – terms as he pushed an apocalyptic picture of a country overrun by violent migrants. The coarse rhetoric, paired with an image of hypermasculinity, resonated with angry voters – particularly men – in a deeply polarized nation.

As president, he’s vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and pursuing retribution against his perceived enemies. Speaking to his supporters Wednesday morning, Trump claimed he had won “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”

The results cap a historically tumultuous and competitive election season that included two assassination attempts targeting Trump and a shift to a new Democratic nominee just a month before the party’s convention. Trump will inherit a range of challenges when he assumes office on Jan. 20, including heightened political polarization and global crises that are testing America’s influence abroad.

His win against Harris, the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket, marks the second time he has defeated a female rival in a general election. Harris, the current vice president, rose to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden exited the race amid alarm about his advanced age. Despite an initial surge of energy around her campaign, she struggled during a compressed timeline to convince disillusioned voters that she represented a break from an unpopular administration.

Trump is the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election. He is the first person convicted of a felony to be elected president and, at 78, is the oldest person elected to the office. His vice president, 40-year-old Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the U.S. government.

There will be far fewer checks on Trump when he returns to the White House. He has plans to swiftly enact a sweeping agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government. His GOP critics in Congress have largely been defeated or retired. Federal courts are now filled with judges he appointed. The U.S. Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-appointed justices, issued a ruling earlier this year affording presidents broad immunity from prosecution.

Trump’s language and behavior during the campaign sparked growing warnings from Democrats and some Republicans about shocks to democracy that his return to power would bring. He repeatedly praised strongman leaders, warned that he would deploy the military to target political opponents he labeled the “enemy from within,” threatened to take action against news organizations for unfavorable coverage and suggested suspending the Constitution.

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Republican Congressman Jim Banks easily earned a promotion to the U.S. Senate Tuesday night after early results showed he secured more than 62% of votes in the race for Indiana’s open seat, overcoming Democratic competitor Valerie McCray and Libertarian Andrew Horning.

The Associated Press called the race at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Banks, the GOP favorite, had a multimillion-dollar campaign war chest and an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. He currently represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District, centered around Fort Wayne — a seat he has held since 2017.

He ran a mostly quiet campaign leading up to Election Day, even skipping the only statewide debate in the race.

In Congress, Banks has focused on veterans issues and holding China accountable. He served in Afghanistan for parts of 2014 and 2015 while serving in the state senate.

Top-of-list issues for Banks include border security, veteran support, national defense and “opposing wokeness” in schools.

His campaign website cites support for numerous Trump administration priorities and points to “pro-growth” economic policies — like tax cuts — as well as decreased government spending and “conservative” election integrity reforms like “voter ID, fair poll watching, and swift counting of ballots.”

McCray, a clinical psychologist, earned roughly 35% of votes, according to preliminary voter returns. She was the first Black woman to become a nominee for the U.S. Senate in Indiana. Her grassroots campaign focused on reinstating abortion rights, tackling ongoing immigration issues and finding solutions to the “Israeli-Palestine issue.”

Horning, who previously run for a myriad of other offices, including several other statewide positions, received 2% of votes.

The trio vied to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mike Braun.

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The Indiana Republican Party’s dominance in the state’s highest elected office remains intact following the election of Mike Braun as governor and his running mate Micah Beckwith as lieutenant governor.

Associated Press called the race with Braun at 58% of the vote. His opponents, Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater, had roughly 39% and 4% votes, respectively.

Braun, McCormick and Rainwater grew increasingly competitive as Election Day neared, battling it out in campaign mailers and warring attack advertisements. However, the business community rallied behind the Republican team, which saw a surge in contributions, while small donors flocked to Democrats.

Beckwith encountered a fair number of controversies in recent weeks, making national headlines for saying he’d fire state employees using pronouns in their signatures and saying the Democratic ticket invoked a “Jezebel spirit,” a derogatory term used against women.

McCormick and her lieutenant governor nominee focused on a “commonsense” campaign, releasing several proposals across dozens of topics. The Braun campaign’s foundation arm pitched its own ideas, wading into brewing health care fights in the Legislature and vowing to reform property taxes.

At 70, Braun is the oldest person ever to be elected as governor of Indiana.

Braun will still return to Washington D.C. to finish out his term in Congress, where he serves as a U.S. senator. He is scheduled to be sworn into office as governor in January.

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WARSAW — Significant early voting in recent weeks in Kosciusko County does not seem to have eased turnout today at voter centers as Americans weigh in on the much-anticipated presidential election and other races.

One anecdotal case could be seen at the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion in Warsaw where a line of people waiting to vote extended out the door — something that normally does not happen there.

"There was 29 people waiting in line at 6 a.m. and the line has not gotten any shorter," said Paul Schmitt, the election inspector at the pavilion.

He's worked elections for 20 years and said today's traffic has been "overwhelming" compared to the normal pace.

Regardless, he said he's happy to see the strong turnout.

One poll worker said they thought early voting would slacken the pace but added they had not had a break yet as of 9:30 a.m.

Kosciusko County Clerk Ann Torpy reports the county experienced record-setting early voting ahead of today’s election.

“Early voting walk-in voters, we had 13,674,” Torpy said Monday afternoon.

The pre-election day turnout comes after officials saw a strong increase in voter registration.

Voter centers are scheduled to close at 6 p.m.

[caption id="attachment_101211" align="aligncenter" width="983"] Voters wait to sign in at the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion on Tuesday morning. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.[/caption]

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WARSAW — Kosciusko County Clerk Ann Torpy reports the county experienced record-setting early voting ahead of today's election.

"Early voting walk-in voters, we had 13,674," Torpy said Monday afternoon.

The pre-election day turnout comes after officials saw a strong increase in voter registration.

Torpy said she believed figures tabulated on Monday represent an all-time record, "at least since 1996."

Early voting wrapped up at noon Monday, and election workers were busy preparing for Tuesday’s vote. Torpy expressed confidence that they were ready for a day in which most interest seemed focused on a heated race for U.S. president between the top two choices former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Local ballots have only one contested race — a Warsaw Community School Board race for District 4 between incumbent Randy Polston and challenger Emerson Poort.

Otherwise, the state ballot features congressional races as well as contests for governor, Indiana Attorney General, a US Senate race and several Supreme court decisions.

Nationally, 78 million people have voted by mail and in person.

Polls in Indiana are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Overnight lows hovered in the mid-sixties, and those heading to the polls in northern Indiana can expect windy conditions, a good chance of rain, and high temperatures near 70.

Hoosiers can text ‘IN’ to 45995 with election-related questions, and more information is available at IndianaVoters.com.

Tune in to the News Now Warsaw and 107.3 WRSW for live election results tonight.

The following is a list of Kosciusko County vote centers.

Vote centers:

Amazing Grace Community Church, 202 W. Arthur St., Sidney.

Atwood Community Center, 213 Hovey St., Atwood.

Center Lake Pavilion, 119 E. Canal St., Warsaw.

Christ’s Covenant Church, 2090 E. Pierceton Road, Winona Lake.

Claypool Lion’s Building, 205 W. Calhoun St., Claypool.

Community Life Center, 825 N Harrison St., Warsaw.

First Christian Church, 115 Park Ridge Drive, Warsaw.

Heritage Park Building, 338 S Walnut St., Etna Green.

Ivy Tech Community College-Warsaw Campus, 2545 Silveus Crossing, Warsaw.

Leesburg Lions Community Building, 114 W School St., Leesburg.

Mentone Fire Station, 201 W Main St., Mentone.

North Webster Community Center, 301 N. Main St., North Webster.

Pathways Church, west entrance, door 6, 2402 West Old Road 30, Warsaw.

Mount Tabor Hall, 8424 N 800W, Etna Green.

Pierceton Community Building, 105 W. Walnut St., Pierceton.

Shrine Building, Kosciusko County Fairgrounds, 1400 E. Smith St., Warsaw.

Syracuse Community Center, 1013 N. Long Drive, Syracuse.

Town Hall Meeting Room, 604 N. Jefferson St., Silver Lake.

Valley Springs Fellowship, 345 N CR 175E, Warsaw.

Wawasee Community Bible Church, 2035 E. 1300N, Milford.

Winona Lake Senior Center, 1590 Park Ave., Winona Lake.

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WARSAW — Destiny Wells said Friday she thinks the political stars for women up and down the ballot in Indiana could align Tuesday for a historic night.

Wells is a military veteran who is seeking to unseat Indiana’s incumbent Republican state Attorney General Todd Rokita.

Wells knows victory in Indiana for Democrats has been few and far between since the days of Evan Bayh but thinks circumstances involving Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris, abortion and an abundance of females on the Indiana ballot — including Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick — set the stage for a real chance.

On Friday, she was en route to Elkhart for a campaign event before heading to southern Indiana for a women’s march ahead of Tuesday’s election.

[caption id="attachment_101125" align="alignright" width="190"] Todd Rokita[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_101126" align="alignright" width="190"] Destiny Wells[/caption]

Background

Rokita gave up his U.S. House seat and ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2018. Two years later, he topped incumbent Curtis Hill for the Republican nomination for Indiana Attorney General, and is running for re-election this year.

Wells, in 2022, ran for Secretary of State and lost to Republican Diego Morales, picking up 40 percent of the vote.

She enlisted in the US Army National Guard following the 9/11 attacks and is currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Money and message

The campaign has turned into a sprint, combining both fundraising and the need to meet voters. She talked to News Now Warsaw while traveling from Carmel late Friday afternoon.

Wells contends much of Rokita’s time has focused on social issues outside the purview of the Attorney General’s office.

That includes an incident in 2022 when Rokita inserted himself into the abortion debate and identified a female abortion doctor who provided services to a child rape victim from Ohio.

He referred to the woman as an "abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report" abortions.

Rokita was found by Indiana state courts to have violated Indiana law and engaged in attorney misconduct due to his public statements about the circumstances.

Wells has continued to make the medical privacy issue a campaign concern.

She believes controversies in recent years require a restoration of integrity to the office.

"I worked in the office under Curtis Hill when he was in trouble with the disciplinary commission. Todd has obviously been in trouble with the disciplinary commission and it's caused a bit of an exodus in the office where it's really degraded the agency and what they're able to do," Wells said.

She said her campaign got a late start in fundraising, but has raised $1 million and is using that judiciously to reach key voter segments.

She said their campaign has worked to reach women through different avenues rather than “preaching to the choir” via traditional channels.

She was scheduled to be in Jefferson and Corydon on Saturday and was also expected to attend a women’s march over the weekend.

“We feel we’ve done a good job at that,” she said.

She said she thinks they’ll see more success on Election Day than what is anticipated.

Wells was asked about the effort to ensure women can vote their conscience without their husbands or others knowing how they voted — an issue that has made national headlines in recent days and was the focus of billboards in Kosciusko County this summer.

She said women have raised the issue in her campaign about the level of privacy.

"My question to men is when they get really upset if women are voting on their own conscience is why? Are you losing control?" she said with a laugh.

"Nobody expects men to vote how their wives want them to (so) why are we expected it the other way around?" she asked.

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WARSAW — With a week to go before Election Day, Kosciusko County is seeing robust early voting.

As of Saturday, Kosciusko County Clerk Ann Torpy said 7,795 people had cast ballots as of Saturday, which marked the first day of expanded voting.

"In 2020, we had 11,000 voters at the end so this is going to be a busy week for us," Torpy said.

"Daily turnout is exceeding what we normally have," she added.

"We had a lot of voters register to vote," Torpy said.

The early voting center in Warsaw has seen a constant stream of voters arriving at the Justice Building.

An increase of some 300 voters comes despite a state-required purge and some residents registering elsewhere after moving out of the county.

Shari Benyouski, who helped launch a new League of Women Voters chapter in Kosicukso County earlier this year and worked with others over the last few months helping people register thinks overall registration could be record-setting.

"My feeling is there is much more motivation to vote," Benyouski said.

That desire to participate, she said, is coming despite a local ballot that is lacking in any contested races.

Most of the interest seems to be focused on one race — the U.S. Presidential contest.

She said that most of the people she talked with while working through the registration process were given a chance to look at the local ballot.

"Most of them would say, 'No, that's not where I'm focused,' " she said.

Early voting continues this week at the Justice Building in Warsaw from 8 a.m. to 4:30 and expanded voting is available Saturday at the Justice Building and the North Webster Community Center.  

Saturday's voting hours will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On a related note, Torpy said the printing malfunction that involved a mistake in paperwork that accompanied absentee ballots turned out to be minor. The local election board took steps to rectify the situation after realizing three absentee voters noticed a problem earlier this month.

Torpy said Monday they have not learned of any additional misprints, which is good news amid a hectic, high-stakes election season.

"Yes, yes — a sense of relief," Torpy said.

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WARSAW — Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater defended himself against recent attacks from Republicans during a stop in Warsaw Friday.

Rainwater faces Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun and Democrat Jennifer McCormick in the Nov. 5 race for governor.

A recent mailer from the Indiana Republican Party’s state committee described Rainwater as a “Perennial loser and deadbeat dad,” and called him “an embarrassment.”

The mailer accuses Rainwater of losing custody of his child, failing to pay child support and being held in contempt by a judge, according to a story recently posted by Indiana Capital Chronicle.

He said he was divorced about 30 years ago and then lost his job.

He said he believes the Braun campaign wants to win more than 50 percent of the vote so they can claim a mandate ahead of legislative pursuits.

In a three-way race, he thinks Braun is struggling to reach that plateau.

“What they’re doing is having trouble earning votes so they feel like they have to disparage me a little bit to take votes from me,” Rainwater said while standing outside of the Libertarian tent in downtown Warsaw Friday during the annual Spooktacular Halloween event.

He said he thinks the GOP state committee has “stretched the facts,” but did not elaborate.

He admits he struggled with finances,  family issues and career difficulties in the 1990s.

“I think a lot of Hoosiers have experienced those types of things. I’ve fought hard to fight through those, to fight my way out of that and I fought my way into rebuilding my life in a way that I’m very proud of,” he said.

Rainwater finished third statewide and lost to Republican Eric Holcomb in 2020 with 11 percent of the vote but collected 19 percent in Kosciusko County and finished second in the general election ahead of Democrat candidate Woody Meyers.

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