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Whatever the reason, early voting counts for the city's municipal elections are hovering around 10 percent as of 10:30 a.m. today.
At the Ward 5 polling site at Center Lake Pavilion, which includes three precincts, 131 voters out of the 1,300 registered had cast ballots for the mayoral, clerk-treasurer and city council races.
"Generally, turnout is very good on municipal election years," said Jerry Chubb, precinct inspector.
The same turnout figures were seen for Ward 4, 2nd Precinct polling at the First Christian Church, 202 W. Main St. - 37 out of 317 registered voters had cast ballots. Poll worker Richard Keeven said he expects that figure to pick up somewhat as the day progresses.
"We generally get about 25 percent turnout in municipal elections," he said.
Other precinct turnout figures are following the same pattern during this morning's voting. The two Ward 1 polling sites are at 9 and 11 percent, respectively, while one Ward 2 polling site had 12 percent of the registered voters casting ballots and the other showed 9 percent voting.
The 1st Precinct of the 3rd Ward was the only polling place showing a strong turnout, at 30 percent. The 2nd Precinct followed the more general voting pattern, with 9 percent of the registered voters casting ballots by 10:30 a.m.
Ann Torpey, of the Kosciusko County Clerk's office, said most voters vote in the early evening, after work, so they expect the turnout figures to improve as the day progresses.
"In 1995, we had a 45 percent turnout for the county as a whole," she said.
