Early voting yields significant results

Nov. 5—GOSHEN — Elections can be won or lost by just a few votes.

"That's the equalizer — one person, one vote," said Elkhart city councilmen and current incumbent for the November election Arvis Dawson. "You could be a billionaire and your vote doesn't mean any more than somebody who's on a fixed income. It's so very important."

Dawson wasn't a stranger to the election process when he ran for his at-large position in 2019. He'd held a District 5 city council position years ago, and recalled a District 6 candidate who lost by just six votes, commenting that she knew of six of her own family members who hadn't voted.

"You should never say that your vote doesn't count," Dawson said. "It's awfully important for everybody to participate in the process and don't make assumptions because you think someone's going win."

For the candidates, any race that they're a part of is of the utmost importance.

After all, why else run? But to make the change, they need the votes.

"People fought and died for this opportunity — exercise your vote," he added. In his race, Dawson said personally, he feels like the current council works well with the mayor, so he doesn't want to see it change, but the voters will ultimately make the decision just like they have in the past, and sometimes by very slim margins.

In Elkhart's 2019 General Election, Mary Olson, Kevin Bullard, and Arvis Dawson took the Elkhart City Common Council At-Large seats with very narrow wins. With six contenders, even the candidate with the most votes, incumbent Olson, had barely 3% more votes than the lowest contender. Olson received 3,015 votes, which was only 17.71%, while the lowest number of votes went to Thomas Butler, who received 2,492, or 14.64% of the total votes cast.

The next highest number of votes went to Bullard at 2,939 and then to Dawson at 2,942. Trailing just behind them, a returning candidate for the position this year, Alex Holtz, received 2,906 votes, just 0.64% less than the top candidate, Olson, and behind him was the council president at the time Brian Dickerson, who got 16.02% of the vote.

"It was all pretty close," Dawson said.

But close doesn't matter. This is a win-or-lose competition.

This year, only one of those current councilmen is running for a seat, and that's Arvis Dawson. The other two left the positions and their seats were filled. Last election cycle, Holtz, who is against running this year, lost to Dawson by just 33 votes. For a city the size of Elkhart, that's too close for comfort.

Goshen Common Council District 3 Councilman Matt Schrock has just two voters to thank for retaining his seat for as long as he has. In the 2019 General Election, he beat out Democratic candidate Jennifer Shell who received 247, with just 249 votes. It wasn't a majority win though, as Independent candidate Rafael Correa also received 33 votes, meaning that Schrock won with 47.07% of the vote.

The race was so contentious that a recount was considered when on Election Night, Schrock was at 248 votes — one vote ahead of his counterpart across the aisle. When 22 additional ballots came in, Schrock's name was on one, giving him a two-vote lead. His win was narrow, to say the least, and the race could have easily shifted with the late counts.

Shell said District 3 had one of the lower voter turnouts in the city during that election cycle.

"This matters because it's your community," Shell said. "It's more important that you vote in local elections and it really is kind of sad that citywide the turnout is not great for municipal elections. You can really try and energize the voters but there are still things that keep people away from the ballot box."

For her part, she felt like she'd done everything she could to capture the majority vote.

"There were no more doors to knock on — no more people talk to," she recalled.

She even knew of a student voting for her from out of state whose vote came in late and wasn't counted.

"I don't think that really hit home for me, voting in a place where I don't see a lot of the candidates I vote for win, it really hit me in a different way when I saw it," she said. "Sometimes it just comes down to one or two people getting out there to make the difference."

In her district, it's pretty common to see the Democratic party lose by just a few votes every election but she decided to call the recount anyway, just to be on the safe side.

"I felt sure enough, but I felt it was my duty to the people who voted for me to call for the recount because it was so close," she said.

In the Elkhart County Commissioners race that same year, a long-time commissioner lost his seat by 87 votes. Newcomer Bob Barnes received 50.50% of the vote, while incumbent Frank Lucchese received 49.50%.

Lucchese, a commissioner's veteran, served in the county seat for 16 years before his defeat in the primary.

"It all comes down to voter turnout, and how motivated people are to get out," Lucchese said. In that primary, he said 4,000 people less than normal vote that year.

"You just hate to see voter apathy, you'd hope that everyone would want to be involved one way or another," Lucchese added. "It's just very important for people to do their civic duty no matter who you're voting for. Get out and vote. I'm a big believer that you can't complain unless you vote."

Elkhart County Clerk Chris Anderson shared his views.

"This municipal election allows voters in all seven of the cities and towns in Elkhart County to vote for the municipal elected officials; Mayor, Clerk, Judge, and Council," Anderson said. "It is an important opportunity to have your voice heard by voting for elected officials that are the most local and the most accessible."

Early voting is solidly underway. As of Nov. 2, in-person voting was at 2,144 votes cast in Elkhart County, with 579 through mail, and 61 from the travel board.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.