Early voting turnout lower than 2008

She first cast her ballot for John F. Kennedy in 1960.

On Wednesday, the second day of early voting, Rae Stoll of Bloomington again voted Democratic.

Stoll voted alongside her husband. She’s a regular early voter who doesn’t like the long lines of Election Day.

“By the time we get into October, I know very well and I have known who I really want to represent me for president, Congress and in local races,” Stoll said.

The whole voting process took about 20 minutes, from waiting in line to getting her identity verified to actually marking the many small squares on the ballot.

Her husband moved a bit faster, voting straight ticket.

It was 2:40 p.m. when the Stolls drove away, “Obama 2012” window sticker and all.

They joined the 422 other walk-in voters that cast their ballots Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. That’s down from Tuesday’s 509. In 2008, 692 and 770 walk-in voters hit the polls the first two days of early voting.

Larry Davidson, 70, was among those working the polls Wednesday at the Curry Building, 214 W. Seventh St. He wore a plastic, patriotic, starred skimmer hat as he monitored the forming line, about 10 deep around 3 that afternoon.

Davidson is a retired IU mail truck driver. He used to travel between the Bloomington and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis campuses delivering mail. He also worked events for IU Athletics.

A heart attack in 1995 led him to retirement, but he soon after started working the polls during election seasons. It’s been a good way for him to connect with the community he’s come to know throughout the years, he said.

Meanwhile, four workers in the Curry Building were busy inputting more than 1,000 paper voter registration forms. The Indiana Public Interest Research Group delivered on Tuesday about 1,000 from its weekend push for registrations, said Ruth Hickman, election supervisor. The group’s season total came to around 2,000.

Forms from IU College Democrats, which registered just shy of 4,000 during the last few weeks, and IU College Republicans, which registered several hundred voters this season, added to the more than foot-high stack of paper forms still needing entry into the system.