The unprecedented amount of absentee and early-voting ballots is slowing the vote count at Lake County election headquarters and keeping Americans waiting for Indiana primary results.

As of 8:40 p.m. CDT, about half of 11,370 absentee and early voting ballots had been counted, said Michelle Fajman, the county's elections supervisor. By contrast, in the 2000 presidential primary, 2,822 early and absentee votes were cast in Lake County. In the 2004 primary, 4,053 early and absentee votes were cast.

"This has far and away surpassed any primary we've ever had. We don't see these kinds of numbers until a general election," Fajman said.

Under normal conditions, by 9 p.m. all absentee and early votes are usually counted, allowing workers to focus solely on the votes cast during the day by machine. Because of the volume of this election, additional counters had to be brought in, and the counting time will still be twice that of any prior election in Lake County.

The tallying of machine votes was also slowed by one missing cartridge in a precinct from Hammond's Robertsdale neighborhood (District 1, Precinct 9), and two cartridges from Gary precincts.

Despite their absence, Sally LaSota, the county's elections board director, at about 8:40 tonight ordered the cartridges of all other precincts brought in from the Hammond and Gary collection areas so as not to further delay the overall counting process.

Governor's race holding for Lake County

All eyes are on Northwest Indiana at Jim Schellinger's election night headquarters in Indianapolis. While the Democratic candidate for governor isn't here yet, a large group of supporters at Pat Flynn's Public House, a bar on the northside of Indianapolis, are waiting out a race that so far is too close to call.

Unofficial tallies from the Associated Press gives Schellinger a slight lead over Jill Long Thompson, a former congresswoman from Northeast Indiana. With the race so tight, everyone here wants to know when they will see results from Lake County.

Schellinger has party support in the Democratic stronghold, but Long Thompson was endorsed by the state's steelworkers and Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez.

The winner of the Democratic primary will take on Republican Governor Mitch Daniels in November. He had no primary opponent Tuesday.