FOX VALLEY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – COVID-19 hasn’t pushed back the April 7th. But it’s forcing clerks to make changes to how their polls are going to run.
Voting is going be different this time around.
The place you normally go to cast your ballot may be changing.
“Little Chute has three polling locations – two here in the Civic Center, and one in Village Hall,” Village of Little Chute administrator James Fenlon explained.
“We’re basically consolidating two of those locations into the single Civic Center location.”
Neenah is consolidating all six of the city’s polling locations to one site: the empty Shopko building on Green Bay Road.
Fenlon tells FOX 11 it’s all because of poll worker shortages.
“The really big issue for us is chief inspectors. We need to have a certain amount of chief inspectors per location, so that helps with the consolidation.”
The Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe tells FOX 11 staff shortages aren’t the only reason for consolidation.
“Some of them have said that even if they have poll workers that they think would be sufficient to run their usual locations, they don’t expect that on Election Day in-person turnout will be as high, and so their hope is to consolidate the processes so that they’re able to utilize some of their best workers to run a more efficient, centralized operation.”.
Consolidation raised other issues for Elections Commissioner Mark Thomsen.
“What does it say about our expectations about people’s ability to vote safely on the 7th? I mean, Waukesha County is a huge county and we go from 15 spots to one.”
Fenlon says overcrowding and safety are concerns for Little Chute, too.
“We’re going to limit the amount of people that are in the building at any one time, so that we lower the risk, and people will be able to wash their hands as they move through the line, so we’re trying to take as much as those precautions as possible.”
Little Chute has also set up sneeze guards for poll workers and will be providing gloves and hand sanitizer for everyone.
And, although polling places will be open on Election Day, municipalities are still urging voters to do one thing
“If they can still today, obviously, get your absentee ballot,” Fenlon said.
The state’s Elections Commission says polling places that will be closed will have signs letting you know where to go.
Residents may find out their polling place by visiting myvote.wi.gov.
