HANCOCK COUNTY — Voting will take a different form for many Hancock County residents this year, but social distancing requirements related to the coronavirus pandemic have changed things for candidates as well. Instead of shaking voters’ hands or holding fundraising dinners, political hopefuls are running their campaigns from indoors.
Candidates running in the primary — all of whom are Republicans — said social distancing has changed the ways they are running their campaigns and prevented some from fundraising as much as they hoped to. (You can read much more about the candidates — as well get all the information you need to make your vote count, by reading our primary Voter Guide here.)
John Jessup is running for re-election as Hancock County commissioner for District 1 and has had to move his campaign effort online. Jessup said he’s now regretting a previous social media decision he made — cutting down from about 5,000 Facebook friends to about 350 to set a positive example for his teenage daughters.
Jessup was able to hold a fundraising event before Indiana’s statewide lockdown began, but as an incumbent, he said he’s spent much of his time since then helping coordinate Hancock County’s response to the pandemic.
“I haven’t had near the time I’d like to have to campaign,” he said. “I’m too busy doing the job.”
Indiana will hold in-person voting on its delayed Election Day, June 2, as well as the week prior, May 26 through June 1. Four polling places will be open — the Hancock County Annex; the main branch and Sugar Creek Branch of the Hancock County Public Library; and the Buck Creek Township Fire Department at Mt. Comfort.
State and local officials have encouraged voters to request mail-in ballots.
Jeannine Gray, a current member of the Hancock County Council, is running against Jessup. She said her campaign efforts have been focused on direct mail, social media outreach and making phone calls.
“It’s not easier, it’s not any harder (than previous campaigns), it’s just different. We’ve had to adapt,” said Gray, who held a Facebook Live campaign event from her home earlier this week.
Marie Castetter is the incumbent Hancock County Superior Court 1 judge, but this is her first run for political office after being appointed to fill the seat of retired Judge Terry Snow. She has three opponents for the position: Cody Coombs, D.J. Davis and Jessica Lacy. The advent of social distancing, Castetter said, has prevented her from doing as much voter outreach and fundraising as she had planned.
“I’m investing a lot myself, which I’d planned to do anyway,” Castetter said.
Instead of knocking on doors, Castetter said, she has been using social media platforms including live videos on Facebook to reach out to the community.
After having worked on other campaigns in which she was able to interact with many voters in person, Castetter said, it’s disappointing not to be able to do the same for her own, but she is making the best of it.
“I think the most important task is communicating your message and what you’re about,” she said.
Kent Fisk, an incumbent running for re-election to the Hancock County Council, said this experience has been different from his previous campaigns. Instead of meeting voters in person, he’s relying more on Facebook posts and yard signs.
In addition to affecting campaigning, Fisk said, the pandemic restrictions could depress voter turnout this year. That could hurt some candidates.
“I think what’s going to hurt some of us is that there’s only four polling places, and they’re only starting early voting a week before,” Fisk said. Though he has run for office in Hancock County seven times, including for council three times, others don’t have that advantage. “Name recognition is the big thing because we don’t have the ability to go door-to-door… It’s hard if your name’s never been on the ballot before.”
Fisk said he isn’t planning to spend much money on expensive options for campaigning like sending out mass mailers.
“It’s hard to spend thousands of dollars getting elected to a position where it takes you two, three years to get your money back,” he said.
Five candidates are competing for three seats on the county council. In addition to Fisk, they are Keely Butrum, Robin Lowder, Kirk Jocham and Ray Richardson.
For Jocham, a first-time political candidate, COVID-19 upended the way he had planned to run his campaign by connecting with voters in person.
“All the plans that I had before all this started… kind of got thrown out the window,” he said.
Instead, Jocham has focused on running his campaign through social media. He considered mailing out fliers, but opted not to after hearing some voters’ concerns that coronavirus could spread through mass mailings. (The Postal Service has said its employees are taking proper precautions, and health officials say there is no evidence COVID-19 has been transmitted by handling mail).
Richardson, a former state representative and Hancock County attorney for 50 years, said the pandemic actually has not much changed his plans for his campaign. He is self-funding his run for county council rather than fundraising and said he hadn’t planned to do much door-to-door campaigning.
Richardson said the ability to register and request a mail-in ballot online will make running this election with minimal in-person contact considerably easier than it would have been when he was running for the state legislature in the 1970s or 1980s. Back then, door-to-door campaigning was vital and also served as a way to register voters.
“If they were not registered, we did that on the spot. Times have changed since then,” he said.
Several candidates said they and volunteers for their campaigns intend to visit polling places on Election Day and during the week of early voting, talking to voters as they would in a typical year. But they will maintain social distancing. Hancock County Clerk Lisa Lofgreen said there are currently no restrictions in place against this type of campaigning, as long as individuals remain at least 6 feet apart.
In response to continued prohibitions against mass gatherings, the Indiana Democratic Party has moved from an in-person to a digital state convention. The state Republican Party has also approved provisions for holding a convention online if doing so in person is not feasible. Both state parties nominate their attorney general candidates at the conventions, among other activities. (Delegates to the state conventions will be chosen in the primary.)
The Hancock County Democratic Party does not have any candidates running in the primary, and without any competitive primaries at the state or national level, chairman Randy Johnson said he’s looking forward to the general election.
“We’re anxious to get the primary over so we can move on to November,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he has talked to many voters who have already cast their votes by mail, but does expect voter turnout to be down somewhat this election season due to both the unusual circumstances and the lack of competitive Democratic races. He said he would like to see the policy of widespread voting by mail continue after the pandemic ends.
“I see this as being a good trial for expanded vote-by-mail,” Johnson said.
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Our primary election Voter Guide tells you everything you need to know to make your vote count between now and Election Day June 2.
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