Tippecanoe Co. pulls plug on vote tally with 300 ballots to go

Count will resume Wednesday, time TBA. Here’s a look at the races already settled and one still up in the air.

With about 300 absentee and provisional ballots left to process and count, Tippecanoe County election officials pulled the plug on the count around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The plan is to resume the count at some point Wednesday morning. A time hadn’t been set as of Tuesday night.

RESULTS, SO FAR: Here’s a scroll of the unofficial votes in Tippecanoe County, as of the end of counting Tuesday night:

UP IN THE AIR: At least one local race remained up in air. Five of the nine candidates for Tippecanoe County remain in contention for three at-large seats. As they stood Tuesday night: Barry Richard, R, 25,244; Ben Carson, D, 24,674; John Basham, R, 24,341; Kevin Underwood, R, 24,304; and Katy Bunder, D, 24,054. Richard, Basham and Underwood are the incumbents.

WAITING FOR MARGINS OF VICTORY: These local races won’t be in doubt, other than the final count.

School boards

Lafayette School Corp. school board, three at-large seats: Ebony Barrett, Margaret Hass and Julie Peretin.

West Lafayette Community School Corp. school board, four at-large seats: Amy Austin, David Purpura, Yue Yin and George Lyle.

Tippecanoe School Corp. school board: Three incumbents – Jake Burton, Julia Cummings and Brad Anderson – along with newcomer Connie Harper won uncontested races.

County races

Commissioner, District 2: Incumbent David Byers, R, over Libertarian Steve Mayoras.

Commissioner, District 3: Incumbent Tom Murtaugh, R, over Libertarian Jaime Ortiz.

Coroner: Incumbent Carrie Costello, R, over Libertarian Benjamin Milanowski.

Treasurer: Incumbent Yadira Salazar, R, unopposed

Surveyor: Zach Beasley, R, unopposed

Judge, Circuit Court: Incumbent Sean Persin, R, unopposed.

Judge, Superior Court 6: Michael Morrissey, R, unopposed.

Statehouse races

House District 13: Matthew Commons, R, over Ed Moyer Jr., D. Commons wins the seat held by state Rep. Sharon Negele, who he beat in the May Republican primary.

House District 26: Incumbent Chris Campbell, D, over Jim Schenke, R

House District 27: Incumbent Sheila Klinker, D, over Oscar Alvarez, R

House District 41: Incumbent Mark Genda, R, over Dan Sikes, D

Statewide

Governor: U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican, over Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater.

Attorney General: Incumbent Republican Todd Rokita over Democrat Destiny Wells

Federal

U.S. House, 4^th District: U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, a Republican, over Democrat Derrick Holder and Libertarian Asley Groff

U.S. Senate: Republican Jim Banks over Democrat Valerie McCray and Libertarian Andrew Horning

TURNOUT: 67,846, as of Tuesday’s initial count. That’s just shy of 60% of Tippecanoe County’s 119,095 registered voters went to the polls. Of those, 59.5% of the ballots came in early voting ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day.

MORE RESULTS, CANDIDATE REACTIONS: Coming after Wednesday count.

Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.