Early voting starts Tuesday for Indiana’s Nov. 3 general election. Monday at midnight is the deadline to register to vote.
It's technically called "absentee voting," a term that includes both voting by mail and voting in person early. Counties offer early voting for 28 days before the election.
In St. Joseph County in the 2020 November elections, exactly half of all voters voted absentee. In 2024 that number rose to 55%.
St. Joseph County voters can vote early at the County Building downtown South Bend Monday through Friday. But County Clerk Amy Rolfes said she wants to get two messages out to voters.
First, there won’t be early voting on Monday, Oct. 12 since the county commissioners have closed the building for Columbus Day. Rolfes also wants voters to know there’s no early voting on Election Day at the County Building.
She says she wants to avoid what happened the last Election Day when people showed up at the County Building to vote but were turned away because the building is not a vote center and is closed on Election Day. They were told the nearest vote center is down the street at the library.
“I did want to save voters the time and the trouble from coming down to the County Building on Election Day," Rolfes says. "I want voters to feel good about knowing where they’re supposed to go on Election Day, so that’s something that I wanted to get out in front of.”
But Rolfes noted the County Services Building in Mishawaka, the county's other early voting site, does also happen to be a vote center, so you can vote there on Election Day.
And one more thing: Monday night at midnight is the deadline to register to vote. You can do that at Indianavoters.in.gov.
