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Midterm elections typically have lower voter turnouts and Tuesday isn’t likely to break the trend.

In fact, University of Evansville political science professor Robert Dion said the numbers could be even smaller than in the past because there are few prominent races on the ballot in Indiana.“Typical things that drive voter turnout up are not present in this cycle,” Dion said. “You have the absence of a presidential race. There are also no senate races this year.”

The top of the Indiana ticket on Tuesday will be the secretary of state’s race and congressional contests, all of which are expected to go to the incumbents.

Dion also said competitive races also can drive up voter participation. But that’s not happening this year either – at least not statewide.

“There are not a lot of high profile, hotly contested races that might increase voter turnout,” Dion said.

Four years ago – the last midterm election – about 41 percent of Indiana’s registered voters showed up at the polls or cast an absentee ballot. In 2006, it was 40 percent.

Dion is predicting voter turnout will be in the 30 percent range this year.

But some county clerks are more optimistic.

Shelby County Clerk Vicki Franklin said good early voting numbers could predict a good turnout.

“Early voting has gone very, very well. Our numbers are up from the spring,” said Franklin.

More than 1,000 people have voted early in the office, she said, about 300 more absentee ballots are expected.

Franklin said voter turnout locally will be decent because of several local races – including the battle for seats on the Shelby Eastern School Board.

Jefferson County Clerk Karen Mannix is also optimistic about the percentage of people voting in the midterm elections. About 10 percent of registered voters have already voted by absentee ballot and by mail.

“We hope to have 50 percent of voters (participate),” Mannix said. “We average about 40 percent (during midterm elections). I can’t say we will do better than that because we don’t have a referendum, but we will see.”

Dion said low turnouts show that voters aren’t taking advantage of an important societal role.

“This is unfortunate and too bad, really, because voting matters and elections are important,” Dion said. “Decisions will be made that will affect each person. In the best of both worlds, we’d have everyone come out.”

Hannah Troyer is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Running for Congress can be expensive – although with few competitive races in Indiana this year, the campaign finance numbers trail those from past years. As the 2014 election season enters its final hours, reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that Hoosier congressional campaigns have raised nearly $13.5 million – $10.6 million by Republican candidates, $2.9 million by Democratic candidates, and just less than $10,000 by other parties’ candidates.

The numbers don’t include fundraising in the campaigns’ final days or spending by outside organizations.

The totals are about 23 percent less than they were just two years ago and about 38 percent less than four years ago during the last midterm election. At that time, a number of competitive races drove up spending.

This year, there are fewer hotly contested races. The Cook Political Reports lists every Indiana district as solidly Republican or solidly Democratic in favor of the incumbent. Still, the state’s most expensive congressional race is probably its most competitive.

In Northern Indiana’s 2^nd District, incumbent Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski raised more than $1.9 million. Meanwhile, her opponent, Democrat Joseph Bock, raised $773,940 – making him the only congressional challenger in Indiana to reach six figures this year.

Bock is a Notre Dame professor who has been heavily critical of Congress and says the socially and fiscally conservative Walorski – a former state lawmaker – is part of the problem. “Washington isn’t getting the job done,” Bock says in a television ad. “You deserve a member of Congress who will.”

Walorski has fought back with messages that she has worked with Democrats to protect women in the military who are victims of sexual assault and supported the Violence Against Women Act.

And despite Bock’s battle to unseat Walorski, experts are predicting a victory for the Republican. The Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics calls the race likely Republican and the Cook Political Report calls it solidly Republican.

In Southern Indiana, incumbent Rep. Todd Young, the Republican representing the state’s 9^thDistrict, set the high-water mark for fundraising among the state’s congressional candidates. Young has raised more than $2 million, while his Democratic challenger, Bill Bailey, raised just less than $100,000.

All but one of the state’s congressional incumbents raised more than $1 million. The lone exception is Rep. Peter Visclosky in the 1^st District, located in the heavily Democratic northwest corner of Indiana. Visclosky, has collected more than $842,000. His challenger, Republican Mark Leyva, has raised a little more than $12,000.

In the northeast corner of Indiana is the 3^rd District. The incumbent, Republican Marlin Stutzman, has raised $1.3 million. His challenger, Democrat Justin Kuhnle, has raised $816.

In Indiana’s 4th District, incumbent, Republican Todd Rokita has raised nearly $1.4 million. His challenger, Democrat John Dale, has raised more than $42,000.

In the 5^th District, incumbent Rep. Susan Brooks, a Republican, has raised more than $1.6 million. Her challenger, Democrat Shawn Denney, has raised nearly $4,000.

Indiana’s 6^th District incumbent Rep. Luke Messer, a Republican, has brought in nearly $1.2 million. His challenger, Democrat Susan Heitzman, has collected just more than $2,500.

In the greater Indianapolis area, which is Indiana’s 7th District, incumbent Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat, has raised just more than $1 million, while his Republican challenger Catherine Ping has raised less than $5,000.

Indiana’s 8^th District incumbent, Republican Larry Bucshon, raised a little more than $1 million. His challenger, Democrat Tom Spangler, raised nearly $25,000.

Garrett Day is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

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Could a backlash be in the offing for the lavishly funded candidates for the IPS board, and their corporate and otherwise wealthy benefactors?

Now that the most pressing issue in next Tuesday’s election finally has gotten the full spotlight in mainstream media, the possibility of a victory by the grass roots over crass loot must be respected.

After all, there’s recent precedent.

Cue Glenda Ritz and her 2012 rout of Tony Bennett, who outspent her 10 to one in his quest for a second term as the favorite state school superintendent of the privatization forces that hijacked the terms “reform” and “accountability.”

Teachers, fellow unionists and parents, seething over four years of antagonism, division, cronyism, plunder of public money and de-professionalizing of teaching under the Bennett-Mitch Daniels regime, took to the streets and outpolled not only Bennett but his presumptive new partner, Gov. Mike Pence, as well.

In the smaller arena of the Indianapolis Public Schools district, those running against the big bucks, and making a point of it, may be even better positioned than the Ritz troops.

Three – Board President Annie Roof and members Michael Brown and Samantha Adair-White – have the name recognition and contacts that accrue to incumbency. Baggage comes with that cargo as well; and opponents hope that a decade of tarring IPS as “failed” and “broken” will have convinced its constituents they need rescue from without. Convinced them, in short, of the wisdom of the Mind Trust and Stand for Children and Democrats for Education Reform and the billionaires behind the industry of professional critics and charter school entrepreneurs who seek to own the operation.

The token dollars Roof, Brown and Adair-White have raised leaves them proportionately farther behind than Ritz was. Besides the staggering total of more than $120,000 raised by Mary Ann Sullivan, Kelly Bentley and LaNier Echols themselves from wealthy and mostly non-Indiana sources, an undisclosed wad is being spent on their behalf by the corporate-backed anti-union organization Stand for Children.

Stand for Children doesn’t have to report its expenditures because they don’t pass through a candidate’s hands, even though they extol him or her by name. Disingenuously enough, the Stand for Children beneficiaries who aspire to be in charge of our children claim neutrality.

And the slick flyers keep stuffing mailboxes. Perhaps TV is on its way. The danger now for the well-heeled candidates may be overkill. Already, veteran Indianapolis Recorder columnist and radio host Amos Brown has urged the black community in MLK-esque terms to rebuke “Stand for Children and the influence of big money education (rustlers).”

African-Americans are IPS’ largest population, albeit the city’s lowest performers in terms of voter turnout.

To be sure, nobody running for school board, including incumbents, doesn’t advocate change. And to be fair, former board member Bentley and former state legislator Sullivan, in particular, are strong and informed candidates who are out there meeting flesh-and-blood voters and making their case. By normal logistics of school board races, their door-to-door and forum-to-forum campaign may serve, ironically enough, to compensate for fat-cat generosity that ultimately could do them more harm than good.

I’ve said it before. There are nuances here. The money isn’t necessarily going to shills. The poorly funded can’t claim virtue solely by their exclusion from the banquet table. But I’ll say it again: “Philanthropists” like Bill Gates and the Waltons and the Facebook hierarchy and even Indianapolis businessmen must want something from their investment in our little school system besides the warm glow that attends selfless service to the needy. Fortunes – not only profits but also seemingly limitless six-figure salaries – have been made from mandatory testing, white papers, union-busting, charter schools, takeover schools, private school vouchers and other latter-day “reforms.” To the extent the average voter is aware of that reality and suspicious of those who pour money into public school elections while begrudging it to actual public schools, David could pull a repeat on Tuesday.

Dan Carpenter is a freelance writer, a contributor to The Indianapolis Business Journal and the author of “Indiana Out Loud.”