Tag: 2020 election results

2016 versus 2020: Shades of difference leave Indiana still red, Monroe County still blue

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Fuscia DRAFT COLORS R Map 2020 Monroe RacesTRUMP2020OVERRUMP2016countywide

From 2016 to 2020, not a lot changed in the general election results in the state of Indiana for the top of the ticket.

In the Hoosier state, Republican Donald Trump had 57.1 percent of the vote against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Against Joe Biden, Trump tallied about the same percentage—just one-tenth of a point lower.

But Biden did 3 points better than Clinton, with 41 percent compared to Clinton’s 38 percent. In 2016, Libertarian Gary Johnson drew almost 5 percent of the vote.

The county-by-county tally yielded a different winner in just one of Indiana’s 92 counties. In Tippecanoe County, Biden squeaked out a 0.2 point margin over Trump, a place where Trump was four points better than Clinton four years ago. That made a total of five counties blue this year, compared to four in 2016.

But the shades of difference across counties give some insight that might not be apparent from statewide or county totals.

To get a better idea of where things improved for each party, The Square Beacon plotted the difference in margins between 2020 and 2016 for the presidential race in those years.

In the shaded maps of presidential race results that are published with this article, red indicates that Trump’s margin compared to Biden was better than Trump’s margin compared to Clinton. Darker shades of red indicate a better margin for Trump in 2020 than in 2016. Blue means that Trump’s margin compared to Biden was worse than his margin compared to Clinton. Continue reading “2016 versus 2020: Shades of difference leave Indiana still red, Monroe County still blue” →

Celebration of Biden/Harris victory at courthouse: “All of our elected officials, whether you are Democrat or Republican, you will be held accountable.”

At noon on Sunday, around 250 people gathered on the Monroe County courthouse lawn in downtown Bloomington, Indiana, to celebrate the results of last Tuesday’s presidential election.

The Associated Press reported on Saturday, about 24 hours earlier, that Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had clinched victory over the Republican Trump/Pence ticket.

A handful of leaders from activist groups addressed the crowd over a PA system.

Some of the remarks could be counted as basking in the glow of a partisan victory. Many were a bit more pointed, challenging those assembled to tackle the work that lies ahead.

Lindsey Batteast, with the Rising Rainbow Coalition, warned:  “All of our elected officials, whether you are Democrat or Republican, you will be held accountable.” Continue reading “Celebration of Biden/Harris victory at courthouse: “All of our elected officials, whether you are Democrat or Republican, you will be held accountable.”” →

Monroe County voters put three incumbent Democrats back on county council

In 2021, Republican Marty Hawk will remain the sole Republican on the seven-member Monroe County council.

Voters returned incumbent Democrats Trent Deckard, Cheryl Munson and Geoff McKim to office with comfortable margins over the two Republicans on the ballot, James Allen and Larrin Wampler. It was the three at-large county council seats that were open this year, in a vote-for-up-to-three type race. The top three vote getters were elected.

In the race for county council, Deckard led with 32,055 votes (24.5 percent). Munson tallied 31,918 votes (24.3 percent). McKim rounded out the top three spots with 28,797 votes (22 percent).

Allen and Wampler received 20,234 votes (15.4 percent) and 17,782 votes (13.6 percent), respectively. Writing in the name of registered write-in candidate, Janna Arthur, were 324 voters. Arthur spoke up at several public meetings over the summer in support of reduced policing and reduced funding for law enforcement. Continue reading “Monroe County voters put three incumbent Democrats back on county council” →

MCCSC school board races: Four seats filled with one new member, three incumbents

On Tuesday, voters in the part of the county served by the Monroe County Community School Corporation returned three incumbents to their seats on the board of trustees and put one new member on the board.

Winning a seat on the non-partisan board for the first time was April Hennessey, who prevailed in a three-way race that included Matthew Smith and incumbent Sue Wanzer.

Incumbent Cathy Fuentes-Rowher prevailed over challenger Marsha Lovejoy.

Incumbent Jacinda Townsend-Gides prevailed over challenger Philip Eskew, Jr.

District 5 incumbent Keith Klein, who has served as trustee since 2009, was unopposed. He is an adjunct faculty member in communications at Ivy Tech Bloomington. Continue reading “MCCSC school board races: Four seats filled with one new member, three incumbents” →

Alea iacta est: Nov. 3, 2020 election results, served when ready

Polls closed at 6 p.m. in Monroe County, Indiana.

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County clerk Nicole Browne has said during the run-up to Election Day this year that results might not be available Tuesday night.

That’s due in part to the fact that mail-in absentee ballots can’t be removed from their envelopes until Election Day. Around 15,000 ballots were sent to voters who requested them. Of those, as of two days ago, close to 14,000 ballots had been sent in.

By way of comparison, for the June 2, primary elections, about 17,500 people voted by mail. That was a number big enough that it pushed local results to the following day.

For the primary election, just seven polling sites were used. For the general election today, voters cast ballots at 28 different polling sites. That’s four times as many reports from polling sites that need to be processed, compared to the primary.

For today’s general election, two races have registered write-in candidates—for county commissioner and for at-large county council. The scanners can tell which ballots had someone’s name written in and they are segregated into a set for review by human eyeballs. But reviewing them one at a time is a necessary step, to ensure that just those write-in votes are counted for the candidates who registered.

The raw number of total  ballots is also expected to be greater than in the primary. In 2016, about 60,000 people voted in Monroe County, which was about twice the 27,000 people who voted in this year’s primaries.

The Square Beacon will report whatever information is available from the Monroe County clerk’s office, as soon as it’s available. Some results from other counties across the state might be available on the election results webpage that has been set up by Indiana’s secretary of state. Continue reading “Alea iacta est: Nov. 3, 2020 election results, served when ready” →