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Of the approximately 70,000 Kosciusko County residents, 42,955 are registered to vote this year in the primary election, according to Kosciusko County voter registration deputy Ann Torpy.
That number is up from the 40,642 people who were registered to vote in the general election of 1998. However, in that general election, only 17,739 voted (43.65 percent). In this year's primary election, that number is expected to be even less.
Despite it being only a primary election, Torpy said, registered voters should turn out to vote because "that's when they pick someone in their party to represent them in the fall."
And for county residents whose children attend Whitko or Tippecanoe Valley schools, the primary election is when school board members are decided. Warsaw, Wawasee and Triton school board members are chosen in the fall. The school boards themselves decide when to have their members elected, Torpy said.
Another thing to remember about school board elections is that school board members are only elected in two out of three election years and not all at the same time. For instance, in the Tippecanoe Valley School Corp., only two of the five school board seats are up for election this year.
In both the Valley and Whitko school board elections, the candidates must live in the district that they want to serve on the school board for, but everyone in the school district votes on the candidates. For example, candidates 1 and 2 live in district A, but voters in districts A, B, C and D get to vote on who will fill the seat on the school board.
There is a similar but slight difference for the Kosciusko County Council at-large race.
For the at-large county council members, candidates can live in any district and every registered voter in the county votes on the candidates. This is different from the county council district races, where the candidates may run only in the district where they live and only voters in those districts could vote for them.
While school board elections are nonpartisan, county races are not. And while there is only one non-Republican running in the primary election this year for a county position, it does not mean there will not be Democratic or other party candidates in the fall.
If a candidate wants to run for a county office in the fall for either Democrat, Libertarian or another party, the candidate must file a declaration to run and then be nominated by their party at a caucus by Aug. 1, Torpy said. A party can only nominate a candidate for a position if there is not currently a member of their party running for that position.
As an example, the Republican party has one candidate for northern district commissioner and several for middle district. They cannot add any candidates for the general election in the fall. However, the Democratic Party has a candidate only for middle district commissioner, so the Democratic Party may nominate a candidate for the northern district for the general election.
And if that's not reason enough to get out to vote Tuesday, then consider that there are races not only for local school boards and county seats, but also races for president of the United States, U.S. senator, Indiana governor, U.S. representatives, state senators and state representatives.
