The Latest: Evansville mayor wins landslide re-election

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The latest developments in Indiana's municipal elections, during which voters are selecting mayors and City Council members around the state (all times local):

9:40 p.m.

Evansville voters are giving their mayor another four years, with Republican Lloyd Winnecke winning a second term in office.

Unofficial results Tuesday showed Winnecke had 62 percent of the vote over Democratic state Rep. Gail Riecken.

Winnecke's campaign highlighted major downtown projects he's backed, such as a medical school complex involving Indiana University and a new hotel to help attract conventions.

He won easily despite Democrats questioning his knowledge about a police investigation of a GOP city council candidate who last month admitted to having a sexual relationship with a student while he was a high school teacher in the 1970s.

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9:35 p.m.

The Republican challenger has defeated the incumbent mayor in the northern Indiana city of Elkhart who backed an unsuccessful attempt this summer to extend the city's anti-discrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Former state Rep. Tim Neese received about 64 percent of the vote to defeat Democratic Mayor Dick Moore's bid for a third term.

The Elkhart Truth reports Moore conceded the election to Neese. Moore said he was proud of his time as mayor and that it was time to retire at age 81.

Moore pushed for changes to the city's anti-discrimination ordinance following the national uproar over the state's religious objections law, but it met with opposition from conservative activists. Neese said the Legislature should decide the issue statewide.

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9:15 p.m.

Incoming Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett says he want to cast aside the despair of violence in the city.

The city's former top federal prosecutor easily won election Tuesday after a campaign during which he called for the hiring of additional police officers to combat crime, as shooting incidents are up about 20 percent from last year.

Hogsett spoke during a victory celebration Tuesday night at Union Station in downtown Indianapolis. The Democrat said he hoped to give hope to the city's young people by helping them find jobs.

Hogsett will replace two-term Republican Mayor Greg Ballard, who didn't run for re-election as leader of the state's largest city.

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8:35 p.m.

Bloomington voters have selected a nephew of former Congressman Lee Hamilton as the city's first new mayor in a dozen years.

Democrat John Hamilton won easily, with unofficial results Tuesday showing him with 77 percent of the vote over Republican candidate John Turnbull.

Hamilton was a former top aide to ex-Gov. Frank O'Bannon and was a big favorite in the heavily Democratic city.

Three-term Democratic Mayor Mark Kruzan (kroo-ZAN') didn't seek re-election.

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8:25 p.m.

Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has extended Democrats' hold on the city's top office by winning election to a third term.

Unofficial results Tuesday showed Henry had 57 percent of the vote compared with 43 percent for Republican City Councilman Mitch Harper

Henry's campaign touted the city's unemployment rate dropping by nearly two-thirds to 4.2 percent since he took office but Republicans had criticized his response to allegations that the Democratic city clerk threatened city employees' jobs if they didn't help the campaign of her top deputy for that office.

Fort Wayne is a Republican-leaning city, but has had a Democratic mayor since 1999.

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8:10 p.m.

Unofficial results show Terre Haute's mayor holding onto his job with a narrow victory over the older brother of Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird.

Results from the Vigo County clerk's office with all precincts reporting show Republican Mayor Duke Bennett with 52 percent of the vote compared with 48 percent for Democratic Vigo County Councilman Mark Bird.

The victory would give Bennett a third term as mayor.

The candidates clashed during the campaign over Bennett's financial leadership of the city that faces a multimillion-dollar general fund deficit.

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8 p.m.

Democrat Joe Hogsett will become the new mayor of Indianapolis after winning election by a wide margin in the state's capital city.

The former U.S. attorney defeated Republican Chuck Brewer and will take the place of two-term GOP Mayor Greg Ballard, who didn't run for re-election.

Brewer conceded the election Tuesday night as unofficial returns showed Hogsett receiving about 63 percent of the vote.

Hogsett campaigned on shifting the city's economic development focus from downtown to outlying neighborhoods and seeking an additional 150 police officers to combat crime as shooting incidents are up about 20 percent from last year.

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7:20 p.m.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tah-juhj) easily won a second term as he faced voters for the first time since he came out as gay in June.

The Democrat's announcement drew scant discussion during his campaign against Republican Kelly Jones, a little-known jewelry maker.

Unofficial results Tuesday from the St. Joseph County clerk showed Buttigieg had 80 percent of the vote compared with 20 percent for Jones.

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5:15 p.m.

A judge is giving voters in a northwestern Indiana city an extra hour to cast ballots after a locked door kept one polling site closed for about three hours.

A Porter County judge ordered all voting sites in the city of Portage to remain open until 7 p.m.

Precinct inspector Michelle Tucker tells The (Munster) Times (http://bit.ly/1GKaI6D) that election workers arrived Tuesday morning at a Porter County Public Library branch to find poll books and ballots locked inside a meeting room.

The workers didn't have a key, and voters who arrived when polling was due to begin at 6 a.m. were sent to nearby City Hall to cast ballots. Voter Leroy Chapman says he voted there, but others were headed to work and said they wouldn't be able to vote.

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2:10 p.m.

Election officials say a library's locked door delayed the opening of a northwestern Indiana polling site by about three hours.

Portage Precinct 25 inspector Michelle Tucker says poll workers arrived Tuesday at the Porter County Public Library to find poll books and ballots locked inside a meeting room.

Frustrated election workers did not have a key to that room and voters who arrived when the polling site was supposed to open at 6 a.m. were sent to nearby City Hall to cast their ballots.

Portage resident Leroy Chapman tells The (Munster) Times (http://bit.ly/1Npcon4) he voted at City Hall, but other voters were headed to work and said they wouldn't be able to vote Tuesday.

Tucker says voting began at the library three hours late once the meeting room was unlocked.

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9:20 a.m.

Tuesday's municipal elections are giving some Indiana high school students their first chance to cast votes in an election.

Tristin Rowe, an 18-year-old at Logansport High School, said he was looking forward to voting in Tuesday's elections in the northern Indiana city. He tells the Pharos-Tribune (http://bit.ly/1LNZmxf ) that by voting "you have the opportunity to choose your future" or at least help choose it by selecting office-holders.

Rowe is one of only a few registered voters at the high school in Logansport, where about 8,200 residents are registered to vote.

Rowe's classmate, 17-year-old Caleb Veasey, recently got a new state identification card. He'll be eligible to vote in next year's general election, when a new U.S. president will be chosen.

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12:30 a.m.

More than 100 cities around Indiana are holding mayoral elections as voters decide who will lead those communities for the next four years.

A new mayor is a certainty in Indianapolis as Democrat Joe Hogsett and Republican Chuck Brewer seek to replace two-term GOP Mayor Greg Ballard, who didn't run for re-election.

Hogsett is the much better-known candidate from his time as the city's U.S. attorney. A wild card could be low voter turnout, as election officials say early voting was down more than 30 percent from the 2011 city election.

Elsewhere, the incumbent mayors in Fort Wayne and Evansville face prominent challengers on Tuesday. Terre Haute Republican Mayor Duke Bennett's Democratic opponent is Mark Bird, the older brother of Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird.