Weather causes low voter turnout

County, state and federal primary elections were held Tuesday, across Indiana. Turnout at polling locations was a record low 12.71 percent (11,514 voters), according to a tentative release by the Monroe County Clerk's Office Tuesday night.\nHeavy rain that affected a large portion of Southern Indiana Tuesday took part of the blame for the low turnout.\n"Only about 18 people had voted at Bloomington (voting station) four as of 8 a.m., which is a commute hour and a peak voting time," said Jason Banach, Republican City Council member, who was not on yesterday's ballot.\nChaim Julian, Communications Director for the Monroe County Democratic Party offered a positive perspective for his precinct.\n"We started slow, but had a flurry of voters coming in with between 45 minutes and half an hour left," he said.\nJulian said turnout was low because of a lack of hotly contested races. \n"There were only a few contested races in the election, including Sheriff and township offices," he said.\nMatt Weber, Monroe County Democratic Party secretary, said without a presidential or senate election this year, some voters weren't inclined to get out Tuesday. \n"In 2000, 4,500 Democrats voted, but I would be surprised if there were over 2,000 Democratic voters today," Weber said.\nJeff Ellington, a candidate for U.S. representative from Indiana's District 9, which includes most of Monroe County, said the media is largely responsible for the low numbers. \n"The media didn't give enough contrasting coverage (among the candidates)." Ellington also mentioned the tight budget reduced the media's interest in covering the election.\nThe general election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, with much higher expected turnout. \nMonroe County Clerk Pat Haley, the county's elections official, was unavailable for comment Wednesday.