Alea iacta est: May 2, 2023 primary election results, served when ready
Primary Election Day polls for May 2, 2023 have now closed in Monroe County.
The cutoff time was 6 p.m., which made for a 12-hour voting day. But anyone in line by 6 p.m. has to be allowed to cast a ballot.
Bloomington voters are electing party nominees for mayor, clerk, and nine city council seats. Ellettsville voters are electing party nominees for clerk/treasurer and town council.
Preliminary results from Bloomington and Ellettsville precincts will be published as updates to this article as they are available.
Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne wrote in her 5 p.m. emailed message: “Please do not anticipate any results before 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m.”
Voters who joined the line just before the closing of the polls are just one reason that results can’t be reported immediately at 6 p.m..
Geography also plays a role. There’s some physical distance that has to be covered, when teams from Primary Election Day polling locations across Bloomington and Ellettsville pack up their ballots, the memory devices from the ballot scanners, and other election documentation, and turn in the whole package to Election Central.
Election Central is in downtown Bloomington, located at 7th and Madison streets in the old Johnson’s Hardware building. That’s where The B Square will remain parked until all results are in.
The B Square will add to this article with time-stamped updates from Election Central until the final unofficial results are in, or otherwise indicated here.
Here’s a key table that The B Square will try to maintain starting right after the polls close at 6 p.m. It provides a guide to when it might be reasonable to start expecting to see any results reported from Election Day. If a row is not shaded, it means ballots from that location have not yet been turned in at Election Central—which means that results from that location cannot be reported yet.
| Location (Precincts) | Address |
| The Academy (P-01, P-29, P-30) | 444 S Patterson Dr |
| Arlington Heights (B-14) | 700 W Parrish Rd |
| Binford Elementary (B-08, P-17, P-20) | 2300 E 2nd St |
| Bloomington HS North (B-04, B-13, B-17) | 3901 N Kinser Pk |
| Bloomington HS South (P-09, P-10, P-12, P-13, P-32) | 1965 S Walnut St |
| Christ Community (B-21, P-07, P-16) | 503 S High St |
| Eastview Church of the Nazarene (P-21, P-26) | 4545 E Lampkins Ridge Rd |
| Election Operations (B-03, B-07, B-22, P-06, P-08, P-15, P-31) | 302 S. Walnut St. |
| Ellettsville Christian (BB-03, R-01, R-02, R-08) | 731 Independence St |
| Fairview Elementary (B-01, B-06, B-20) | 500 W 7th St |
| Faith Lutheran (P-14) | 2200 S High St |
| Highland Park Elementary (R-09, VB-02) | 900 S Park Square Dr |
| Indiana Memorial Union (B-05, B-18, B-19, B-23) | 900 E 7th St |
| Jackson Creek Middle School (P-11, P-28) | 3980 S Sare Rd |
| Sherwood Oaks Christian (P-18, P-19) | 2700 E Rogers Rd |
| Summit Elementary (P-03, P-05) | 1450 W Countryside Ln |
| Tri North Middle School (B-02) | 1000 W 15th St |
| University Elementary (B-09, B-10,B-16) | 1111 N Russell Rd |
18:10 p.m. Election Central. People standing in line when the polls closed have pushed the total voters today to 7,923. That’s apparently the highest total since 1995, when 8,171 total voters participated in a primary. The breakdown was: 4,233 voters in the Democratic Party primary; and 3,938 in the Republican Primary. Those figures are from Democratic Party chair, and Monroe County election board member David Henry. H-T coverage of that year’s primary is here: Democratic race decided by 31 votes.
18:23 p.m. Election Central. The initial results from early voting are in. They’re available in the embedded spreadsheet on this page. Here’s a link: Monroe County clerk’s .pdf of initial results The numbers in the table displayed below were hand-entered by The B Square. If you notice discrepancy please leave a comment below.
18:28 p.m. Election Central It looks like the mayor’s race will be tight. Same for District 1 city council. District 2 and District 5 city council are not as close but could change between early and election day votes. The at-large race between third and fourth place—Matt Flaherty and Lois Sabo-Skelton—also looks like it will be close. None of the Election Day totals have been tallied yet.
18:36 p.m. Election Central. Arlington Heights Elementary School has arrived at Election Central with ballots. They’re the first location to turn them in. Applause erupts.
18:41 p.m. Election Central. Tri-North Middle School has now turned in their ballots.
18:48 p.m. Election Central. Highland Park, Summit, and Fairview have now arrived at Election Central with their ballots.
19:05 p.m. Election Central. The table of results has been updated to reflect the second update from the clerk’s office: Monroe County clerk’s second set of results.
19:16 p.m. Election Central. Election operations has turned in their ballots. That’s a big pile of ballots. The Academy has also turned in its ballots. Several precincts voted there. Some other locations might have come in while The B Square was doing data entry on the second batch of results, but all the grayed out rows are definitely in.
19:38 p.m. Election Central. The third set of results has been released by the Monroe County clerk. The table displayed on this page has been updated by hand from the Monroe County clerk’s third set of results.
19:45 p.m. Election Central. The only remaining polling place that has not turned in ballots is Sherwood Oaks. That had a big turnout.
19:49 p.m. Election Central. Sherwood Oaks has called Election Central. They are on their way!
20:01 p.m. Election Central. Sherwood Oaks is in the house! They are met with wild applause. It will be another 10 minutes or so before the final unofficial results will be released.
20:15 p.m. Election Central. Final unofficial results are in. Here’s the fourth and final set of unofficial results from the Monroe County clerk.
[Note: The Latin in the headline means something like “the die is cast.” Julius Caesar is supposed to have said it when he led his army across the Rubicon river in Northern Italy. Apparently some translators interpret it to mean that what’s done is done, but it’s apparently the subject of some scholarly controversy. It can also be analyzed as meaning something more along the lines of “the gamble has been taken.” In any event, it was a tradition of local Ann Arbor attorney David Cahill to post the phrase to local online outlets exactly when polls closed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It’s a good tradition, one which The B Square transplants to Bloomington without apology.]
