Election Day has begun.
The Indiana Daily Student is live reporting from the polls and will update you with the latest results.
Polls have opened in Monroe County and across much of Indiana. To find out your polling place and ways to get to the polls, read the IDS’ guide here.
Check out the IDS’ elections landing page for candidate profiles and news from the local, state and national races.
8 p.m.
The McCormick campaign is not conceding the governor’s race as of 8 p.m. A campaign communications director said the campaign was waiting for more votes to come in out of Indianapolis and other blue strongholds across the state. The Associated Press called the race for Mike Braun at 7 p.m.
8 p.m.
Monroe County Clerk Nicole Browne announced 54,533 county residents cast ballots for the 2024 General Election. This number includes all ballots cast in person during Election Day and early voting, which began in Indiana on Oct. 8. Browne said the total amounts to around 57% of registered voters in Monroe County.
7:40 p.m. at Woodburn Hall
Chatter filled Room 004 in Woodburn Hall during the Hutton Honors College Council Association’s “Election Night Watch Party.”
Students decorated cupcakes and joked with one another about the current election, and whenever NBC News ran a clip of Donald Trump, the room would echo with impressions of the former president.
When NBC News placed Trump ahead of Kamala Harris by 20 electoral votes, IU junior Lubabah Hassan said she wasn’t worried about Harris’ chances for the rest of the night.
“This is pretty typical with the states they’ve called,” Hassan said.
While NBC had called Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana for Trump, Hassan said she felt confident in Harris’ chances of winning the overall election. Despite this, she fiddled with the crayon in her hand that she’d been using to color in an electoral map as she contemplated the alternative possibility of a Trump victory.
“There’s just a lot on the line in terms of reproductive rights and economic change,” Hassan said.
The room would go quiet as the NBC News hosts shared updates on voting statistics and shifting voter demographics. IU junior Cassidy Tellas expressed doubt over any real change being made regardless of the voting shifts and who was elected President of the United States.
“Either way, I’m not very hopeful,” she said.
Tellas' outlook on the election had been shaken when she’d received word from the Rush County elections office that her first mail-in ballot had been lost on its way to her apartment.
“What if someone else got it? There’d be no way to know it wasn’t me mailing it in,” Tellas said.
As NBC News announced that votes were still being counted in North Carolina and Georgia, two students sitting three rows from the back of the room watched the broadcast in silence, their hands held together tightly.
7 p.m.
Former President Trump will win the state of Indiana and its 11 electoral votes, per the Associated Press.
With 13% of the vote counted, Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris 61% to 38%.
6:30 p.m. at Election Central
Election Central bustled with activity as officials removed mail-in ballots from their envelopes to be processed. Once the ballots are fed through a high-speed scanner, they’re sent to the Election Board for adjudication. The three-person board, complete with a Republican, Democrat and the county clerk, flags ballots with errors, such as having two boxes filled in. If the ballots contained notes indicating the voter’s intention, the board then votes on how it should be counted.
Kylie Farris, Monroe County Elections Supervisor, said the process was smooth overall, though more than 200 voters had to fill out provisional ballots. Most of these occurred at the Indiana Memorial Union, which is the vote center for most on-campus students. Farris said they sent over 300 provisional ballots to the IMU. The IDS reported earlier that the IMU ran out of provisional ballots for a time.
Though many people who filled out provisional ballots were students who are registered in another county, Farris said some provisionals came from IU faculty and staff who didn’t know that they have to vote in a particular precinct. Farris said a local committee is working on making Monroe County a vote center county, which would allow all voters to vote at any polling location in the county.
The number of provisional ballots is more than previous elections, Farris said. Voters cast 195 provisional ballots during the general election in 2022, though turnout was higher this election than in 2022.
6:30 p.m. at Bloomington High School North
The ballots were almost done being counted at Bloomington High School North. Sarah Montgomery, a first-time poll worker, helped arrange the ballots in piles of 25. Poll workers counted each pile two to three times and compared the number of ballots to the number of check-ins that they recorded digitally.
The stream of voters was steady and not overwhelming, Montgomery said. She described her first experience as a poll worker as positive and said she didn’t witness any divisive behavior from voters.
Growing up, Montgomery watched both of her parents work the polls, sparking her desire to participate in the action.
Going into this election, Montgomery said she asked herself, “How can I be more involved?”
Montgomery said after she leaves the polling site, she is attending a friend's election result watch party and bringing a cake she has prepared.
“Election viewing, not quite a party,” she said.
She arrived at the high school at 5 a.m. this morning and expecteds to leave within the next two hours tonight.
High schooler and first-time poll worker, Abigail Craig, said although the work wasn’t easy, she would work the poll again. Craig worked as the polling site’s “sheriff” and controlled the line throughout the day. She said the work was repetitive and tedious, especially when moving the traffic cones.
Craig said she will be leaving the polling site at 7 p.m. and will go home to watch something “more energetic” than the election results.
6 p.m. at Indiana Memorial Union
The poll center at the IMU closed at 6 p.m. Poll worker Alyson Braer shut the doors to Alumni Hall and began to pack up signs in the lobby outside alongside other poll workers.
Students who were still inside but had yet to vote would still be allowed to cast their ballots. The same would have been true if people were in line before 6 p.m., but there was no line outside of Alumni Hall — only a few students sitting around the lobby who had waited hours for their friends to vote.
Braer said there is more for poll workers to do even after polls close.
Poll workers put the ballots into a machine to count them. Provisional ballots are counted and put in a separate folder to be later confirmed or denied.
Once the machine counts the ballots, the inspector and the poll workers count the ballots to make sure the machine’s count is correct.
Once everything is packed up, the inspector, a Democratic and Republican poll worker transports the ballots directly to the Monroe County Election Office.
6 p.m.
Most polls in Indiana are now closed. Voters who joined the line before 6 p.m. may stay in line to vote.
Polls in five counties in northwest Indiana will close at 7 p.m. EST.
Results across the state will begin being released immediately, however, it may be several hours until counties can count a majority of the ballots.
5:20 p.m. at Indiana Memorial Union
Around thirty students sat in chairs lining the walls of Alumni Hall, shuffling every few minutes as a voter was called up to a desk. They were not in line to vote regularly — that line was shorter than it’s been all day and on the other side of the room. Instead, they were directed away from the polls, told to cast a provisional ballot.
Many were not registered to vote in Monroe County or were in the wrong precinct. To vote, they waited for one of three chairs to open at a table where a lone poll worker sat to guide them through the provisional ballot process.
The students have until noon Nov. 15 to follow up with the Monroe County Election Board and provide correct documentation. Information about whether provisional ballots are counted can be found here after Election Day or upon contacting the election board.
PACE Associate Director Mark Fraley stood outside of Alumni Hall and helped students with questions about eligibility and registration. He said that very few provisional ballots get counted, and voters often don’t follow up and defend their ballots after races are called.
4:30 p.m.
Poll workers are still processing more than 30,000 in-person absentee ballots, county clerk Nicole Browne wrote in an email. Mail-in, overseas and military, and travel board ballots cannot be counted until after in-personal absentee ballots are done, which could push back the release of results.
As of 4:30 p.m., 21,640 voters had cast a ballot in Monroe County, which is 22% of all county registered voters, Browne wrote.
4:25 p.m. at Summit Elementary School
Shoes squeaked on the linoleum as voters came in from out of the rain. Marc Teller and his wife headed out of the gym after voting, baby Talia on his hip.
“I’ve been voting since I got the honor to vote against Bush in the Iraq War,” Teller said.
Now, 20 years later, he has a different candidate on his mind. His biggest focus?
“Making sure Donald Trump is nowhere near the White House,” he said.
Talia, dressed in denim overalls with a dancing bear pacifier clip, fussed a little. Teller handed her to his wife, who bounced her on her hip.
“It’s actually her birthday! She’s one!” he said.
The baby born on Election Day squirmed, bored by all the talk. But Teller still had the election on his mind.
“She’s our good luck charm,” he said.
Outside, the rain poured. Two people stood just in front of a bright red sign warning campaigners not to move closer. The pair stood with umbrellas on their shoulders, chatting, one in a Horrocks shirt, one in a Hall shirt. The race for Indiana District 62 is closely contested, but the two were civil.
Adrienne Evan Fernandez, campaigning for Thomas Horrocks, and Patrick Bennett, campaigning for Dave Hall, said neither of them is really there to change people’s minds.
“We’re making sure that the barrier to cast a valid ballot is as low as possible,” Fernandez said. They explained provisional ballots to several voters and helped others find the correct polling location.
“This is how bipartisan leadership actually happens. You know people in other parties,” she said. “And it gives me hope that local politics is not as divided as it seems to appear at the federal level.”
Both had been there all morning — Fernandez since 6 a.m., Bennett since 8 a.m. But the rain didn’t seem to bother them.
“This is a nationwide community event and I think it’s important to be here to thank people for voting,” Bennett said.
Fernandez agreed.
“Democracy doesn’t care about weather,” she said.
4:24 p.m. at Indiana Memorial Union
With less than two hours until the polls close, Alumni Hall has seen a steady stream of voters. City councilmember Sydney Zulich of District 6 spoke with a student, Georgia Clarke, at the IMU earlier today who was turned away after she was unable to provide proof of residency.
“There are new residency laws that make it much harder for students to vote that come out of the state legislature,” Zulich said.
She referred to Indiana House Bill 1264, which requires first-time voters prove their residency with additional documentation when they register to vote in person at a registration agency.
“Because she could not verify her address, they tried to ask her to cast a provisional ballot, and so I showed her how to find her lease so that she could prove that she lives in the address that she was talking about,” Zulich said.
A provisional ballot is used when there are questions about a voter’s eligibility or registration. The Monroe County Election Board will decide after Election Day whether to count them or not.
She said she had given election officials her freshman year dorm address as it was the location she had registered to vote with, but that she had since moved off campus. After finding the lease to her current apartment, Clarke was able to vote normally.
4 p.m. at Binford Elementary School
“We’re just happy you’re here voting.”
Similarly positive affirmations from the poll workers upon the arrival of prospective voters cut through the silence of the gymnasium. While the rain had started, it hadn’t deterred people from casting their ballots as they shook the water off of their coats and umbrellas before walking over to check in.
First time voter Corinne Gillette said she felt pressure voting in an election with such a large impact on the country.
“It’s weird because it’s my first time voting in a presidential election and not a local election,” she said. “So, it’s a little scary, but I feel grown up now.”
Supervising the gymnasium was the poll inspector Tom Henderson, who has been working at polling sites since 1972 based on his unwavering belief in the power of the voting process.
Henderson said he was impressed by the preparedness of people arriving to vote, having all their documentation in order and showing an eagerness to make their voice heard.
“They’re taking longer and being more considerate,” Henderson said. “I’m pleased by the turnout and studiousness of the average voter.”
4 p.m. outside Tri-North Middle School
There were only two hours left before poll stations would close in Bloomington. A rush of afternoon voters filed into the Tri-North Middle School gymnasium, dodging raindrops as they ran in. A few campaigners were still braving the rain outside, including Anany Maini for Dave Hall, the Republican incumbent for Indiana House District 62.
Maini said he stands with Hall’s policies, which he said benefit “both parties.” Hall was first elected in 2022. He’s the vice -chair of the Utilities, Energy and Telecommunication committee and a member of the Local Government and Natural Resources committee.
Maini said it’s “critical” that people are voting today, citing inflation and immigration as his biggest concerns this election.
“As an immigrant myself, I am a legal immigrant,” Maini said. “I really don’t encourage illegal immigration in this country because I think it’s going to hurt Americans first, and then it’s also going to come down to legal immigrants like us who would be taking the shared blame just because some people are not following the law.”
Tiffany and Donald Reed posed for a photo with their baby in front of the “Vote Here” sign, proudly wearing their “I Voted” stickers. Tiffany said they were “all about” voting.
“I want the United States to stay the way it is,” Donald said. “Trump needs to get office.”
3:50 p.m. at Upland Brewing Company
Patrons who go to Upland Brewing Company who wear “I Voted” stickers can receive 20% off their food items, though a few were unable to receive it. Shift lead Amber Wilbur said emails were sent prior to Election Day to people on their mailing list or rewards program with information about the discount.
The discount only covers food due to Indiana Code 7.1-5-5-7, which does not allow establishments to give exclusive discounts on alcohol.
The law prohibits discrimination of different prices, discounts, allowances or service charges when it comes to the sale or contract of alcoholic beverages.
Wilbur said the discount was a company decision that covers all Upland Brewing Company restaurants in Indiana. It was a way for the company to say, “thanks for getting out and voting,” she said.
At around 3:50 p.m. the only person in the restaurant who wore an “I Voted” sticker was Wilbur. At the time there were less than 20 individuals in the restaurant — none of them wearing “I Voted” stickers.
Earlier in the day, Wilbur served alcoholic beverages to five customers wearing “I Voted” stickers, though wasn’t able to offer the discount to them because they only ordered alcoholic beverages.
Wilbur said the morning to afternoon crowd was less than usual, but said they expect a bigger crowd in the evening.
3:30 p.m. at the Indiana Memorial Union
Confused voters streamed out of the Indiana Memorial Union polling station Tuesday after being told their vote would not be counted if they filled out a provisional ballot. Poll workers cleared up the confusion and clarified that in-state provisional ballots would be counted, just not immediately.
One voter said that she would drive to Indianapolis, where she was registered, to vote at her precinct.
Voters registered out-of-state learned their provisional ballots would not count at all unless they presented their case before the Monroe County Elections Office within ten days.
Some student voters left before voting to attend class and said the wait was longer than expected.
Others waited patiently outside of Alumni Hall after voting, waiting to be brought “I voted” stickers since the polling station ran out.
Alyson Baer, poll worker at the Indiana Memorial Union polling location, answered people’s questions outside of Alumni Hall and ensured voters had the right documents since 5 a.m. She said the polling location had been swamped since it opened at 6 a.m. and there had been no time for any of the polling workers to take breaks for lunchtime or throughout the day. She said the cause is worth it for her, though, and she has worked in the same polling location for three years.
3:30 p.m. at Election Central
Monty White moved to Bloomington three weeks ago. He was disappointed to find out he was not registered to vote in Bloomington after believing he had followed the required process. He was given a provisional ballot. For him, this election is particularly consequential. He said he made more money in the same job when Donald Trump was president than under President Barack Obama. White identified himself as a Republican.
Two IU students, Ethan Schlyer and Bobby Dunne, are majoring in management and marketing respectively. Both voted for Trump with the hope of the economy getting better under his administration. Dunne said he felt Trump was just a better person than Vice President Kamala Harris.
3:20 p.m. at University Elementary School
Chris Eller’s day started at 4 a.m. as he prepared for his 14-16-hour shift working the polls. He arrived at the poll location at 5:30 a.m. As the election inspector, he is one of the first to arrive and the last to leave.
This is his second time being an inspector and fourth year working on election staff. He previously worked as a poll clerk and a poll judge.
“It is a way to contribute to society so that it can function,” Eller said.
When the polls opened at 6 a.m., Eller said there was a line out the door with voters waiting to cast their ballot. The school remained packed until around 11 a.m. when the rush started to slow, but Eller expected an evening rush from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
At 1:30 p.m. 727 ballots had been cast at University Elementary School. There were no lines, and voters efficiently checked in with the clerks. By 3:20 p.m., 854 ballots were cast and a consistent line of around five people formed waiting for check in.
In the afternoon, Eller assisted people with address changes, verified voter names and helped voters who require assistance.
“It’s wonderful to see people come in,” he said. “We’ve had several first-time voters, and we’ve had several voters that have been voting since the 1950s. It’s just great to see everybody come in and vote.”
After the polls close at 6 p.m., Eller, along with his fellow poll clerks and poll judges, will count every ballot whether they are ballots cast, spoiled, provisional or unused, ensuring no ballots were lost. They want to end the day with 1,700 ballots, the same amount they started with at the beginning of the day.
3:15 p.m. at Bloomington High School North
Abigail Craig, a senior in high school and poll worker at Bloomington High School North, worked line control for 10 hours. She’s seen about 400 voters today. Despite her dedication to the polls, Craig will not be able to vote. She missed the age cutoff to vote in this election by one month.
Craig said the voters that have come in so far were “more friendly than expected.”
At the time, only one woman standing at her polling booth filled in boxes in black pen to vote in the election. Meanwhile, 11 other poll workers made small talk.
Alongside Craig is Republican Judge, Jesse Evans. Evans has worked at the polls for four elections now.
“I just like serving the community,” he said.
Heath VanDeventer, son of first-time candidate for Commissioner of District 3 Joe VanDeventer, stood outside. He is the sole campaigner and stands alone behind three clumps of campaign signs lodged in the grass in front of the high school.
He carried a campaign sign and wore a campaign T-shirt in support of his dad. VanDeventer believes his dad will bring “common sense” to the office. The county has been heavily Democratic for years, VanDeventer said, and it is time for someone like his dad to be in office.
“He’s not really a politician,” VanDeventer said. “Just a local guy who cares about the community.”
VanDeventer had been at the front of Bloomington High School North since 9 a.m., standing silently in support of his dad, waiting to answer any questions and talk to anyone that approaches him. According to VanDeventer, he doesn’t approach voters, but “says ‘hi’ if they want to approach.”
Elyse Menzel, a freshman at IU, voted for the first time. Although she felt excited after voting, she said the presidential candidates are “definitely not exciting.” Menzel plans to stay up tonight and watch the poll results even though she knows the final result will likely not come for a few days.
3 p.m. at Bloomington High School South
Clouds started rolling in around 3:10 p.m. as a few voters trickled into Bloomington High School South's back entrance. Two Thomas Horrocks campaign volunteers, a Democratic candidate for Indiana's House District 62, remained sitting outside the polling place.
“There was a lot of turnout earlier this morning with over 800 people coming in to vote before 11, but it’s been slow moving because it’s the end of the workday,” Horrocks campaign volunteer Zoe Gray said.
While there hadn’t been many issues throughout the day, Gray said a supposed campaign surrogate walked in and out of the building multiple times to poll watch.
“There’d been a guy earlier in the day who’d been poll watching when he wasn’t allowed to,” Gray said.
Overall, the volunteers said their time at the poll was a smooth experience.
2:34 p.m. at the Indiana Memorial Union
A short line occasionally trailed outside of the left double doors to Alumni Hall as students filed in to wait in the longer line inside. One voter ran into trouble as she realized she was in the wrong precinct.
“While I was in line, I actually checked to see if I was in the right precinct because people kept talking about it in line, and I didn’t know it was a thing,” sophomore Jasmine Kazmirski said. “I have to take a bus home, and I have to get in my car and drive to the right location.”
She said she had class in two hours and was unsure if she’d be able to make it. Kazmirski is from South Bend, Indiana, but changed her registration to Bloomington without realizing her assigned precinct would be that closest to her home address.
Other voters in the line seemed to be having trouble as well — one asked the Indiana Daily Student if they needed to be registered in Indiana, and another worried her registration hadn’t gone through. Indiana does not allow same-day voter registration. Voter status can be checked here. One voter said they were looking at a one to two hour wait. Several election workers were stationed by the doors to assist students with questions.
IU freshman Morgan Ellenberger emerged from Alumni Hall with a weary look and said she had to wait nearly two and a half hours to vote.
“I wanted to vote at home but switched my address like a week and a half ago and it didn’t switch over so I had to wait in line for a provisional (ballot),” she said.
On top of that, the IMU polling station ran out of provisional ballots for about an hour of Ellenberger’s wait, she said. The polling station is no longer out of provisional ballots.
“The first, I’d say, hour I only moved up one chair,” she said. “And that wasn’t because people were going in, it was because people were leaving.”
Around 2 p.m. at Bloomington High School South
Three people stood on the curb outside the doors that lead to the polling location in Bloomington High School South All three wore t-shirts for Thomas Horrocks, the Democratic candidate in the race for Indiana House District 62.
