60 percent vote in Clark County

By DAVID A. MANN
David.Mann@newsandtribune.com

November 05, 2008 01:46 am

— About 60 percent of Clark County’s approximately 80,500 registered voters made it to the polls Tuesday.
That’s up by about 5,000 voters when compared to the last presidential election.
In 2004, 75,179 Clark County residents were registered and 42,870 showed up to vote, or about 57 percent. In 2000, about 55 percent of registered voters came to the polls, casting 37,894 ballots.
“It went smoother than I anticipated,” said County Clerk Barbara Bratcher-Haas, whose office oversees elections.
There were a few problems — disputed identifications and a lack of voter booths — but most of the issues were quickly resolved.
“Most of the disturbances, I would say, were personality-related,” she said.
The Evening News received few calls about voting problems.
Clarksville resident Mary L. Siebert said a young man had set up cardboard dummies — Barack Obama sitting next to John F. Kennedy — outside of her polling place at Parkwood Elementary School.
Siebert was unsure if the display was close enough to the polling place to be considered electioneering, but she said it was intimidating for voters.
“I just thought it was terrible,” she said. “In bad taste.”
Bratcher-Haas said the turnout was right about where she had expected.
“There were long lines but voters were very patient,” she said.

VOTER TURNOUT IN CLARK
• Registered voters: 80,498
• Ballots cast: 48,424
• Voter turnout: 60.2 percent