Politics & Government

Tosa Turnout Near 50 Percent by Midday in Some Wards

Strong and steady voting all morning and into the early afternoon signals a total that could top 70 percent.

The turnout of voters in Wauwatosa for the statewide recall election was "hefty" all morning, according to one poll worker, with some wards already nearing the 50 percent mark by noon or shortly thereafter.

At , polling place for wards 16 and 17 (District 6), 600 of 1,340 registered residents had voted, or 45 percent, in No. 17, the highest figure in a sampling of voting sites.

Most places were not far below that, and workers who had been predicting a relatively huge overall turnout of 70 percent were wondering if it might beat that in the end.

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But that number is a bit hard to pin as perfectly accurate – many new voters were registering at the polls, skewing the percentage as perhaps slightly high. By the same token, it could have been a little low, because poll workers had been too busy all morning to get most of their absentee ballots processed.

At , where Ward 13 votes, the number was somewhat more certain. Poll watcher Dave Cadrette said that because it is the city's smallest ward by some margin – just 720 registered voters – workers did have time to count all their absentees and include them in the total of 315 votes cast by then, or 43.75 percent.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Most polls visited, at , reported that voting had been strong and steady all morning but business was tapering off after noon.

That was not the case, however, at , where wards 4 and 5 vote. There was still a line out the door at 12:45 p.m., with some residents saying they waited 15 minutes or more to vote.

"It's been out the door and down the hall since we opened, for Ward 4," said poll worker Mary Foley. "It's because of redistricting for the County Board seats.

"They cut right through Ward 5, and most of our voters ended up there. Fun and games."

Because of that, Ward 5 has only 1,070 registered voters, while Ward 4 has a whopping 1,964, creating a backup in balloting.

"Oh well," Foley said. "Can you imagine how much trouble it would create if you had people voting for different county supervisors in the same ward?"

At , home to wards 14 and 15, the counted vote percentages against registered voters was a little lower than elsewhere, still just below 40 percent – but again, that's misleading for reasons stated above.

"We have today registered dozens," said chief poll inspector Karen Albers.

But then again... "We've got huge numbers of absentee ballots to count," said poll worker Nancy Hall. "Five times what we usually see."

As for walk-in voting, Hall said, "It's hefty. It's been almost non-stop."

The number of absentee ballots often is a good predictor of overall turnout, and that number has ballooned for this election.

According to City Clerk Carla Ledesma, 3,515 absentee applications were processed, compared to 2,978 in the 2010 regular gubernatorial election.

"Of the one-time voters for this election, 30 percent cast ballots by mail, 70 percent in person at the clerk’s office," Ledesma said. "My observations are that people likely waited longer in line at the clerk’s office, especially last Friday, than they would have going to the polls on Tuesday.

"The reason is that absentee voting requires more steps than does voting at the polls on election day; the additional paperwork required by absentee voting creates a longer voting experience for the elector," Ledesma said.

"It is a more expensive way of voting, but it provides a valuable option for those electors who might otherwise be unable to get to the polls on Election Day."


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