Alea iacta est: May 7, 2024 primary election results, served when ready

Primary Election Day polls for May 7, 2024 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.

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.

Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne typically cautions against expecting any results before 7 p.m. The earliest votes that will be reported are from in-person early voting and mailed-in absentee ballots.

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.

[Updated 8:25 p.m. May 7, 2024. The unofficial winners of the contested local races for respective party nominations: Democrat Jody Madeira for District 3 county commissioner; Democrat Julie Thomas for District 2 county commissioner; Democrats Trent Deckard, Cheryl Munson, and David Henry for at-large county council. And Republican Joe Van Deventer for District 3 county commissioner.]

For votes cast today, geography plays a role in how fast the results are reported. There’s some physical distance that has to be covered, for teams at Primary Election Day polling locations across Bloomington, Ellettsville and the rest of Monroe County.

The teams have to pack up their ballots, the memory devices from the ballot scanners, and other election documentation, and turn in the whole package to Election Central.

Monroe County voters are choosing party nominees for several local positions in county government: county auditor; county commissioner District 2; county commissioner District 3, county coroner; three county council at-large positions; county surveyor; county treasurer; and three circuit court judge positions. Party nominations for state and federal offices are also at stake.

For this article, The B Square will post .pdf files of all results it obtains and link to them, but focus in the running text just on local contested races.

Monroe County Democrats have at least one candidate for every open position, but only three races are contested in the party primary. Both county commissioner incumbents face challenges. Incumbent Democrat Julie Thomas is being challenged by Peter Iversen, who is a sitting county councilor. Incumbent Democrat Penny Githens is being challenged by Indiana University law professor Jody Madeira, and former Bloomington city councilmember Steve Volan.

Four Democrats are vying for the three nominations as county councilor: incumbents Trent Deckard and Cheryl Munson; and newcomers Matt Caldie and David Henry.

There are only two candidates in the Monroe County Republican Party’s primary, both vying for the same county commissioner seat, which is currently represented by Democrat Penny Githens. The two candidates for the GOP are Joe Van Deventer and Paul White, Sr.

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.

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. [Poll Location Map]

5:52 p.m. Election Central

A voter with a mail-in absentee ballot arrives to hand-deliver her envelope. That is allowed right up until 6 p.m., according to Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne. So this voter had 8 minutes to spare.

5:58 p.m. Election Central

PizzaX is delivering donated pizza to fuel the election workers efforts over the next couple of hours.

6 p.m. Election Central

Polls have closed. On hand here at Election Central is the three-member election board: Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne; John Fernandez; and Judith Benckart. There are long tables with numbered stations set up to receive the voting materials from each polling location.

6:15 p.m. Election Central

Here’s a .pdf file of the initial results.  [1815 2024-05-07 Election Results] No Election Day results are included.

6:42 p.m. Election Central

The first polling site has arrived with its election materials. It’s Summit Elementary.

6:49 p.m. Election Central

The second polling site has arrived with its election materials. It’s Binford Elementary. Meadowood is right behind them. Tri-North Middle School is a few minutes later.

6:59 p.m. Election Central

Lots of arrivals from different polling sites. Not every one of them will get logged in the time-stamped narrative, but they’ll get shaded in the table above.

7:09 p.m. Election Central

About half of the 29 polling sites have turned in their materials. They correspond to the shaded lines in the table above.

7:19 p.m. Election Central

The final emailed update from Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne puts total turnout at  14,432 voters, which is 15.8 percent of registered voters. Election Day count was 9,719 voters

7:34 p.m. Election Central

All but two of the polling locations have turned in their materials.

7:36 p.m. Election Central 

Just one ne polling location, University Elementary School, has not yet turned in the election materials.

7:39 p.m. Election Central

The second batch of partial results in now in: [Partial results 2024 Monroe County Primary]

7:57 p.m. Election Central

University Elementary School team is in the parking lot. That means all polling locations have reported in. Clerk Browne told me she is going to wait and do the rest of the remaining polling sites all in one go.  It will probably be another 15 minutes (at least) before  the final unofficial results are in.

8:20 p.m. Election Central

Here’s the final cumulative unofficial results: [final unofficial results]

[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.]