Published: April 30, 2008 10:09 pm         

Early voting up in Clay County

BRAZIL — What’s wound down to a three-way slugfest for the American presidency has driven more and more voters to the polls, and a Clay County election official said Wednesday afternoon they’re no different.

“Early voting is up a good bit,” said Beth Mallinak, Clay County’s deputy clerk over the elections.

And while Clay County and the surrounding region have a number of competitive races in this year’s primary, Mallinak said the national presidential campaign has been driving most of the attention.

“That’s all you hear everybody talking about. They’re not talking about any of the county people running,” she laughed, noting “a lot more voting interest than for a normal primary.”

With the incumbent county clerk in her eighth year of office, the race has opened up with two Democrats and one Republican running.

Also, the incumbent coroner has chosen not to run, bringing one Democrat and three Republicans to the race.

“This is pretty normal,” she said. “We don’t normally have a lot of big races in the primary, maybe one or two.”

Clay County, along with other Hoosier counties, has spent a considerable amount of time purging duplicate voting records, those of individuals registered to vote there who have since moved and are voting in other areas.

“We cleared off so many in the last two years from duplicates all over the state, it’s difficult to tell,” she said when asked if new voter registrations were higher than in years past.

But overall, interest is noticeably up, she said.

Below is a list of local races, contested and uncontested.



Democrat

County Clerk

Kathleen M. “Cathy” Bales

Samantha R. Conner



County Recorder

Joseph Mark Dierdorf



County Coroner

Brandon S. Sciotto



County Commissioner District 1

Jackie R. Withers Sr.



County Commissioner District 2

Charles S. “Charlie” Brown

Robert A. “Bob” Thomas



County Council At Large

Charles A. “Chip” Hoskins

Michael D. McCullough

Edward A. Nevins

Brian L. Wyndham



Republican

County Clerk

Victoria J. “Vickie” Wheeler



County Recorder

Angela J. Modesitt



County Coroner

Victoria L. “Vicki” Hill

Joel R. Reinoehl

Thomas E. “Eddie” Treadway Jr.



County Surveyor

John R. Keller



County Commissioner District 1

Walter E. Young



County Council At Large

Rick E. Neier

Warren E. Stevenson