Mapping the Dems: 2024 Monroe County commissioner primary election results

In Tuesday’s Democratic Party’s primary to select one nominee for each of two county commissioner seats, two slates formed across the two positions, which among other things shared financial resources, by sending out joint mailings.

It was hardly a surprise that the two incumbents—Penny Githens (District 2) and Julie Thomas (District 3)—worked together.

On the side of the challengers, it was Peter Iversen (District 2) and Jody Madeira (District 3) who banded together, leaving Steve Volan, who also ran in the District 3 race, as the one solitary campaigner for a county commissioner nomination.

Many supporters of one incumbent also supported the other. In the early afternoon on Tuesday at the election operations building, Sarah Ryterband, who serves on some county and city boards, was holding signs for both Thomas and Githens.

The same was true for the Madeira-Iversen slate. Standing not far away from Reyterband was former Bloomington city councilmember Jeff Richardson, who was willing to treat The B Square like a prospective voter, wrapping up his pitch like this: “Please consider it’s a time for a change and please consider voting for Jody and Peter!”

County commissioners are chosen by voters countywide, even if the county is divided into three districts, which define where qualified candidates live.

Tuesday’s election results gave neither two-person slate a complete victory.

In District 2, it was Thomas who edged out Iversen, by a 3-point margin—with 51.53 percent (4,523) compared to Iversen’s 48.47 percent (4,254). One measure of the closeness of the race was the numerical difference—which was just 269 votes.

The number of undervotes, compared to the numerical margin, is another measure of how tight the race was. When a voter fills out some of the ballot, and does not vote in a particular race, an “undervote” is recorded for that race.

On Tuesday, there were 391 voters who filled out a Democratic Party primary ballot, but did not vote for either Thomas or Iversen. If most of those undervotes had gone to Iversen, he would have prevailed.

Madeira’s win in the three-way District 3 race was a decisive 10-point margin over Githens—43.47 percent (3,860) for Madeira compared to 33.11 percent (2,940) for Githens. Volan received 23.41 percent (2,079).

The geographic pattern in the two races showed some similarities, but also some clear differences.

The mapped plots of dots included with this article show the numerical margin in each precinct of the winning candidate, compared to second place. For example, if the margin of the winning candidate in a precinct was 17 votes, then 17 dots of that candidate’s color were randomly plotted inside the precinct. If two candidates tied for the highest number of votes, no dots were plotted.

One basic pattern was the advantage that Iversen and Madeira had over the incumbent commissioners inside Bloomington city limits. One exception to that pattern was the strength that Githens showed in a pocket of the southeastern corner of the city, the neighborhood where she lives.

Githens was not nearly as strong as Thomas among voters outside the city limits. And Iversen was strong on the eastern side of Monroe County outside of Bloomington, in addition to showing strength inside of Bloomington.

Volan’s strength was confined to inside the city limits—he won 6 of the city’s 47 precincts outright. Volan was tied for the largest number of votes in a couple more precincts. Githens won 5 of the city’s precincts outright, compared to 33 for Madeira.

The Bloomington 09 precinct was a three-way tie between Volan, Madeira and Githens, with each candidate receiving 53 votes.

Madeira’s strong performance inside the city extended to most areas of the county outside of the city limits. She won outright 20 of the 36 precincts outside of Bloomington, while Githens picked up 13 of them.

The only place where Githens was the strongest of the three candidates was the area to the southwest and west of the city, which are territories subject to pending annexation litigation. Both Thomas and Githens made their opposition to annexation part of their campaign platforms.