Indiana

Todd Young wins Indiana GOP primary for U.S. Senate seat

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Latest on Tuesday’s Indiana primary election (all times local):

8:05 p.m.

Rep. Todd Young has won the Republican nomination for Indiana’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Young won in Indiana’s Republican primary Tuesday after a biting campaign against tea party-backed Rep. Marlin Stutzman, who characterized Young as an establishment pawn at a time when voters are increasingly frustrated with Washington.

Young’s victory could have national implications as Republicans look to keep the seat that’s opening up with the retirement of GOP Sen. Dan Coats.

Democrats need to pick up at least four seats to retake control of the Senate and they saw Stutzman as the more vulnerable candidate.

Young’s campaign was boosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a PAC with ties to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Former U.S. Rep. Baron Hill was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

7:10 p.m.

An election official says some Indiana voters were still waiting to cast ballots an hour after their polling place was due to close.

Sean Horan of the Boone County Clerk’s office says voters were still in line in two precincts in Zionsville, an affluent suburb about 15 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Under Indiana election law, voters in line to vote when polls are due to close at 6 p.m. local time are allowed to cast ballots.

Other county clerk offices around the state said earlier they expected lines of people waiting to voter at 6 p.m.

5:55 p.m.

County clerk offices across Indiana say they expected queues of voters waiting to cast ballots at 6 p.m. but say if they’re in line then, they’ll get to vote.

In Marion County, deputy director of the clerk’s office Russell Hollis said shortly after 5 p.m. that lines have been long Tuesday and more lines are expected.

Carroll County Clerk Andrea Miller says the courthouse in Delphi will most likely be open past 6 to take voters.

Elkhart County Election Board member Arvis Dawson says he hadn’t received any complaints about long lines. He says long lines are good because it shows people are participating in the election.

Polls were due to close at 6 p.m. local time.

3:55 p.m.

Indiana’s Election Division says the primary is running relatively smoothly so far.

Election Division Co-Director Angie Nussmeyer says so far things are running normally for a primary that involves presidential candidates.

She also says nearly 98 percent of voters who requested absentee ballot applications for the state’s primary have completed and returned those ballots.

Indiana has seen a record number of absentee ballots cast for Tuesday’s primary. The previous record was about 185,700 absentee ballots cast for 2008’s primary.

Nussmeyer says counties were still receiving absentee ballots by mail. Absentee ballots include in-person ballots cast at county offices or early voting centers, mailed-in ballots

3:21 p.m.

Strong voter turnout in a heavily Republican suburban Indianapolis county created some long waits for voters casting ballots in Tuesday’s Indiana primary.

Hamilton County Elections Administrator Kathy Richardson said some voters faced hour-long waits at polling stations in the cities of Fishers and Carmel, while others got “in and out” quickly.

Richardson said the county just north of Indianapolis also had nearly 12,000 primary voters cast absentee ballots. That’s nearly three times the number who voted that way in 2012.

She expects the county’s total primary voter turnout will be close to what it was in the 2008 primary, when nearly half the county’s registered voters cast ballots.

2:43 p.m.

An election official in a central Indiana county says software problems that created long waits at some polling places led some people to leave without ever voting in Tuesday’s primary.

Hancock County’s Clerk of the Courts, Marcia Moore, says the software vendor for the county just east of Indianapolis “really let us down” Tuesday morning with computer glitches.

Moore says as long lines formed at some of the largely rural county’s 12 voting centers some people left “because they were frustrated that the line was slow.” No voters were turned away from polling places, but Moore says some left because they worried about being late for work.

She says one of the software problems affected computer servers, while another caused some election ballots to exclude county commissioner’s races.

12:16 p.m.

The elections director for northwest Indiana’s heavily populated Lake County says voter turnout there could reach 55 percent for Tuesday’s primary.

Michelle Fajman, director of the county’s Board of Elections and Voter Registration, says Lake County voters appear on pace to beat the turnout seen during Indiana’s 2008 primary. That year’s primary featured the tight race between Barack Obama and Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Fajman says just over 50 percent of the county’s registered voters cast ballots in 2008’s primary and Tuesday’s turnout could reach 55 percent.

She says nearly 45,000 Lake County voters had cast ballots by late Tuesday morning, either at polling stations or by absentee ballot.

Fajman says the pace of voting Tuesday in the county’s 525 precincts “has been steady all day long.”

11:24 a.m.

Indiana’s Election Division says nearly 98 percent of voters who requested absentee ballot applications for the state’s primary have completed and returned those ballots.

Election Division Co-Director Angie Nussmeyer says more than 286,000 completed ballots had been received by Indiana county officials by 8 a.m. Tuesday. That’s about 97.6 percent of the more than 293,000 ballot applications requested.

Indiana has seen a record number of absentee ballots cast for Tuesday’s primary. The previous record was about 185,700 absentee ballots cast for 2008’s primary.

Nussmeyer says this year’s absentee ballot votes “beat the 2008 number pretty handily.”

Absentee ballots include in-person ballots cast at county offices or early voting centers, mailed-in ballots and those received by other means.

About 63 percent of the absentee ballots voters requested were Republican primary ballots.

9:26 a.m.

Heavy voter turnout is reported in central Indiana’s Johnson County, where many voters face waits in long lines to cast ballots in the state’s primary election

County clerk of the courts Sue Anne Misiniec (MESS‘-Nick) says more than 6,400 people voted Tuesday in the first 2 ½ hours after polling sites opened in the county just south of Indianapolis.

She says voters had the chance to vote at Johnson County’s five early voter centers, and if they didn’t “they need to understand that they’re going to be standing in line. We can’t change that.”

Misiniec says more than 11,000 people had voted at the county’s early voting walk-in centers, and thousands of others mailed in ballots.

She says the county might see a 50 percent voter turnout for Tuesday’s primary.

7:52 a.m.

Some central Indiana polling stations are seeing steady crowds as voters cast their ballots in the state’s primary election.

Lines had formed outside some Indianapolis polling stations before those sites opened their doors Tuesday. But the deputy director of Marion County’s clerk’s office, Russell Hollis, says it’s too early to say whether turnout out is heavier than normal for the primary.

About two dozen people were lined up outside the Broad Ripple Park Family Center on Indianapolis’ north side before its polling station opened.

Polling site inspector William Rawls says 140 people voted there in just over the first hour, which he calls very strong for a primary.

In Hancock County, just east of Indianapolis, some polling stations were facing periodic technical problems, but all county polling sites were open.

7:03 a.m.

Polling stations have opened across Indiana for the state’s closely-watched primary election after the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates spent days campaigning in the state.

Polling sites opened to voters at 6 a.m. EDT Tuesday in 80 of Indiana’s 92 counties. Voting sites opened an hour later in 12 counties in northwestern and southwestern Indiana that are on Central Daylight Time. All Indiana polling sites will close at 6 p.m. local time.

Elaine Clark, a 57-year-old stress management trainer, was among Tuesday’s early voters at Allisonville Christian Church’s polling station in Indianapolis.

Clark voted for Donald Trump in Indiana’s Republican presidential primary. Clark says she likes Trump because of his business success and because he’s not a politician. She says, “I’m excited to try a non-politician for once.”

1:42 a.m.

The nation’s attention turns to an Indiana primary election that could play a significant role in who wins the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations.

Voters on Tuesday also will decide the GOP nominee for an open U.S. Senate seat. Other races include GOP primaries for two open U.S. House districts, and two challenges to Republican leaders in the state Senate.

Turnout already has set records. The Indiana Election Division said that more than 270,000 people cast early ballots. That’s nearly 50 percent more than the state’s previous record for early voting in 2008.

Election Division Co-Director Angie Nussmeyer says she doesn’t know whether the jump in early voting will mean higher turnout overall. In other states, the presidential primaries have driven more voters to the polls.

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