Jackson County voters got out to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the 2022 primary election.
It was the first election in the county’s history to use vote centers. Instead of voters going to a polling place within their voting precinct, they could vote at any vote center within the county.
Incorporating vote centers also means voters must use an electronic voting machine that will print out a paper ballot with readable lines of who they voted for.
On Election Day, there were seven vote centers in Jackson County: Three in Seymour and one in each of Brownstown, Medora, Crothersville and Freetown.
The only contested county office in the election was for sheriff.
Republican voters in the county could have voted for Rick Meyer, the current sheriff, or Shawn Minton, a Jennings County Sheriff’s Department officer. Both are Seymour natives.
Meyer wound up the winner, defeating Minton 2,702 (71%) to 1,104 (29%), according to unofficial results.
No Democratic candidate filed to run for sheriff in the primary election. The general election is Nov. 8.
In the only other contested races, Melanie Pottschmidt won the GOP nomination for the
Brownstown Township trustee with 309 votes. She was trailed by Daniel Banks with 192 and Nicki Hudson Downs with 161.
Republican Jeff Joray won the nomination for Jackson Township trustee with 953 votes over Curt Staley with 406, and Republican Dirk Smith won the party’s nomination for Owen Township trustee with 98 votes. Frank Fisher finished with 72 votes.
Four people also competed for the GOP’s three nominees for the Jackson Township board. The winners were Kathy Hohenstreiter, 1,019, Janet Davidson, 873, and Skylar Earley, 839. Jessica Payne finished with 723 votes.
Mary Fee, 89, of Medora went to Medora Christian Church to vote Tuesday.
She said she was on the county’s election board in the early 1950s and remembered when everything was done on paper and staying up until 4 a.m. to county every vote.
In previous elections, Fee said she had to drive to Kurtz to be able to vote due to her address being in Owen Township.
This election, she was able to vote at her own church and said she was glad because she knew how to get there and how to get around inside.
Fee said she has voted on Election Day since she was first able to vote.
“As the saying goes, ‘If you don’t vote, you can’t complain,’” Fee said.
Brownstown native Denny Oakes sat on the front lawn of Medora Christian Church to campaign for Minton on Tuesday. He said Minton is a lifelong friend, and he wanted to do whatever it took to help him.
Aside from a couple of other people campaigning in front of the church Tuesday morning, Oakes said he was by himself for a little while and enjoyed the nice weather and seeing people he hasn’t seen in years from when he played guitar in a local band called East Fork. The band played many wedding receptions in its heyday, Oakes said.
He said he believes everyone should exercise their civic duty to vote.
“If you’re able to walk, somebody can get you to the polls,” Oakes said. “There is no excuse not to vote. For people that don’t vote, don’t complain about what’s going on. That’s the reason I vote. If I don’t like it, I can still complain.”
At the Freetown Community Center, Lowell Chadwell, 86, said everything went smoothly when he used the electronic voting machine, and everybody should vote because it’s their right to.
He said he as “used everything in my life” to vote.
One new voter in Freetown was Brownstown Central High School senior Jonathon Garvey.
He said he has worked at a polling site before, so he was familiar with the machines.
Garvey said while it might not seem like one vote is very important, in the long run, it can be.
“Even though your vote is minuscule on a big scale, whenever they’re all put together, your vote means something,” he said.
The enclosed shelter house at Brownstown Park had a steady line of voters in the early afternoon.
Abbie Reynolds, 20, of Medora voted there and said it was her first time voting in person because she previously had active duties in the U.S. Army and had to mail in her ballot.
She thought it was important to vote in order to bring about change.
“I think it is important to vote because if you want change, you have to do something to change it,” Reynolds said. “If not, you can’t really complain.”
For more on the results of the election, visit tribtown.com.