KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — Kosciusko County went red across the board, along with state voters.

While precincts were reporting lines of voters throughout most of Tuesday, when the final tallies were made, only 60.89 percent of the county’s 54,162 registered voters went to the polls. This was lower than the 2012 and 2008 presidential general elections, where 62 and 63 percent of the voters cast their choices. The county had 6,201 absentee ballots cast in this year’s general election and 26,778 machine ballots.

There were 9,955 straight Republican party ballots cast, 1,657 for the Democratic party and 39 for the Libertarian party.

There were four of the 69 precincts, which had between 70-73.68 percent voter turnout. At the opposite end five precincts had less than 50 percent turnout. Four precincts had between 42.82 to 49.84 percent turnout while one had 27.88 percent. The remaining precincts had 50 to 68 percent turnout.

But the turnout was higher than the 2004 and 2000 presidential general elections where only 58 percent voted. The highest percentage of voters casting ballots were in the 1996 and 1992 presidential elections with 71.12 percent and 76.3 percent respectively.

Candidates for county positions were all uncontested but an interesting result could be seen throughout the evening. Anthony Ciriello, candidate for county coroner, received the highest number of votes among county candidates and received even higher votes than state and national candidates. Ciriello received 27,540 total votes.

Donald Trump and Indiana’s Governor Mike Pence, Todd Young, Eric Holcomb, Curtis Hill, Jennifer McCormick, Jackie Walorski and Jim Banks were winners in the county from the onset of the release of results.

At the end of the evening the Republican presidential team of Trump/Pence had received 73.76 percent of the vote in the county. Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine received 19.47 percent and Gary Johnson and Bill Weld received 5.02 percent. The county had 506 write-in votes. According to documents with the Indiana Secretary of State Election Division, those votes were for Darrell L. Castle and Scot N. Bradley with the Constitution party; Jill Stein, Green; Tom Hoefling, Independent; and others.

Young won the U.S. Senate seat with 68.90 percent of the county vote over Evan Bayh’s 24.93 percent and Lucy Brenton’s 6.15 percent. There were seven write-in candidates for this race.

While predictions were the race for governor would be close, that was not the case in Kosciusko County. Holcomb and Suzanne Crouch received 69.62 percent of the votes, to John Gregg and Christina Hale’s 26.41 percent.

Libertarian candidates Rex Bella and Karl Tatgenhorst received 3.96 percent. Residents wrote in five candidates.
The Republican candidate for attorney general, Curtis Hill, took the county by storm as well as the state. Countywide Hill received 81.38 percent of the votes. Statewide, with 14 counties still to report results to the secretary of state’s office, Hill had received more than one million votes. His Democrat opponent, Lorenzo Arredondo, received 18.62 percent of the votes countywide and more than 850,000 votes statewide.

The Republicans will take back the office of superintendent of public instruction with the election of Jennifer McCormick over Democrat incumbent Glenda Ritz. Locally, McCormick received 71.17 percent of the votes to Ritz’s 28.83 percent. Statewide, with results from 10 counties still to be recorded, McCormick received 1,310,246 votes to Ritz’s 1,155,458 votes.

Jackie Walorski retained her seat as U.S. Rep. District 2, not only by receiving 77.05 percent of the vote in the county to her Democrat opponent Lynn Coleman’s 18.59 percent, but also the district by receiving 152, 886 votes to Coleman’s 98,368. The Libertarian candidate Ron Cenkush received 4.37 percent of the vote in the county and just over 9,600 votes district wide. There is one county in the district still to report to the secretary of state’s office.

Looking at the U.S. Rep. District 3 seat, Jim Banks easily won the county and district. Banks received 77.02 percent of the vote in the county, with Tommy Schrader, Democrat, receiving 16.95 percent and Pepper Snyder, Libertarian receiving 6.03 percent. District wide, Banks received 190,631 votes to Schrader’s 63,081 and Snyder’s 18,881. There is one county in the district still to report to the secretary of state’s office.

Republican Blake Doriot, newly elected state senator for District 12, easily defeated his Democrat candidate Carl P. Rust in the county and district. Doriot received 76.61 percent of the vote to Rust’s 23.39 percent. District wide, Blake received 29,266 votes to Rust’s 12,443.

Curt Nisly was re-elected to the state representative District 22 seat. In the county the incumbent Republican received 76.06 percent of the vote to his Democratic opponent Brian J. Smith’s 23.94 percent. In the district, Nisly received 19,244 votes to Smith’s 5,621.