INDIANAPOLIS — Hotly contested races including the Senate Republican race in which Richard Mourdock defeated incumbent Dick Lugar helped drive primary voter turnout to 22 percent, down from 2008 but higher than in 2004.
Secretary of State Connie Lawson said Friday that 957,000 of Indiana's 4.4 million registered voters cast a vote in the May 8 primaries.
That was down from 40 percent for the 2008 Democratic presidential primary pitting Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton but up from 21 percent in May 2004.
Allen County's turnout was 19 percent.
Lawson says Blackford, Johnson and Switzerland counties used vote centers for the first time in the primary, joining Tippecanoe, Cass, and Wayne counties. Vanderburgh County used them countywide for the first time.
