INDIANAPOLIS — An astounding number of Hoosiers aren't waiting for Election Day to vote.
Numbers from the state election commission show that more than 30 percent of Indiana's registered voters have already cast their ballots.
Outside the Warren Township Government Center, voters waited, some of them shivering, for more than two hours.
"I see committed people," Terrence Lacy said as he waited to vote. "I see people who want to do the next right thing,"
"The next right thing" isn't just happening in Indianapolis but across the entire state.
Friday, Hamilton County election officials said 46 percent of registered voters have already voted, that number comes with a 400-percent increase in completed absentee ballots.
In Johnson County, there were no long lines of voters, but the turnout is big. The county clerk expects to hit the 50 percent mark by Friday night.
Diana Ratcliff said this was her first time to vote.
"I didn't think my vote was important." Ratcliff said. "I changed my mind about that."
Three days before Election Day, well over a million-and-a-half Hoosiers, one out three registered voters, had already voted.
"I see a whole lot of dedicated Hoosiers," Debbie Hoke said as she prepared vote.
So many Hoosiers are waiting so long to vote that Marion County election officials decided to make Lucas Oil Stadium an early voting site. It will open Saturday and Sunday to Indianapolis voters.
With 56 voting machines, more than any other early polling site, election officials expect to process at least 400 voters every hour.
They expect 200,000 Indianapolis voters will vote early. Although Russell Hollis, deputy director of the Marion County Clerk's Office, believes that should provide at last some relief on Election Day.
"Based on the turnout we've seen at this point, we will still have long lines on Election Day," he said. "We will see a record turn on Election Day."
Making this an election year to remember.
