By Kim McDarison
Whitewater City Clerk Michele Smith described primary turnout as slow late Tuesday afternoon.
As of 5:35 p.m., she said 1,353 voters had arrived to cast their ballots. She estimated the city’s registered voters at about 6,000.
Describing traffic at the city’s only polling place for the primary election, Smith said, “It seems lighter to me than past gubernatorial primaries. It seems like we had more of a steady flow in the past compared to today.”
She described the hours between 5:30 and 8 p.m. as typically a “slow time” at the polling place. She estimated another 100 to 150 voters could trickle in before the polls closed.
Typically, poll workers register a number of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater students during elections. That was not the case Tuesday because students have gone home for the summer, Smith said.
During the last gubernatorial general election, poll workers registered 2,356 voters, she said, adding that she had recently researched that number because voting counts from previous elections serve as a guide when determining how many ballots to order for the next election.
Smith said about 655 absentee ballots had been processed by 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. The city issued about 750. That number was larger than the average number of ballots requested by voters before COVID-19.
“I don’t think they will all come in,” she said, adding that she believed poll workers had already received the majority of ballots that would be returned before the polls closed.
“People have discovered how easy it is to vote using absentee ballots,” she said. She believed trends towards absentee ballot use would continue in the future, she said.
While plastic barriers were still in place at poll workers’ stations, Smith said fewer people seemed concerned by COVID-19.
While poll workers were in ample supply Tuesday, Smith said she was concerned there might be shortages in November.
During the fall general election, she said, the city will operate two polling places, one at the city’s downtown armory, which served Tuesday as the city’s only polling place, and another on campus.
At the armory Tuesday some 30 poll workers were on hand to assist voters. Smith said she was pleased with that number.
During the primary election, she said, one of the biggest concerns voters shared was a lack of Democratic candidates running for Walworth County sheriff.
“It’s a partisan primary, so you vote in one party. There are no Democratic sheriff candidates and some of our voters were a little frustrated with that,” she said.
Poll workers wait at the downtown armory in Whitewater to help primary voters.
Poll workers Lin Tortomasi, from left, Valerie Cole, Lynn Binnie and Sharon Knight are on-hand to help voters at Whitewater’s polling place.
Drew Miller at left, and his son, Anderson, 2, are helped by poll worker Lynn Binnie.
Poll workers Doug Anderson, at left, and Everett Long are ready to help voters operate the voting machine. The job includes making sure the ballot is fed correctly into the machine, Anderson said.
Poll workers Bill Smith, from left, Olivia Pratt and Alaina Smith man a table where Whitewater residents living in Jefferson County receive their ballots.
Whitewater City Clerk Michele Smith offers her impressions about Tuesday’s election.
Kim McDarison photos.
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