BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Turnout for Tuesday’s election in Brown County is expected to be around 30%.
County Clerk Sandy Juno says 45,820 ballots were scanned Tuesday. That represents 23% of the estimated eligible voters in the county.
Meanwhile, there were 21,484 absentee ballots sent out that had not been scanned. Juno says if all those ballots are returned and properly postmarked and certified, they would add up to another 11% of the eligible voters.
For comparison, turnout in the 2016 presidential primary was 48.6% of the estimated eligible voters in the county. That year, both the Republican and Democratic parties had competitive presidential primaries in Wisconsin.
“We kind of expected to have issues. And, well, we did,” Juno says, “To be honest, I’m very disappoint that’s how it ended up.”
Because of coronavirus fears leading to a shortage of poll workers, many communities consolidated polling places. That led to long waits for voters in some communities, including Green Bay.
“1,852 municipalities in Wisconsin. We only had two that really failed,” Juno says, “I think it has more to do with that individual municipality than it has to do with all the other changes or COVID-19.”
She raised concerns last week after hearing the city’s plans for how to handle the election.
“Some of the decisions that were made by the city of Green Bay, we weren’t privy to what their thought process was. We did have concerns going into the election with some of the decisions that we were hearing,” Juno says, “I think it’s extremely important, in our case Green Bay – take a look at their management plan and administration so that when we get to the fall elections we don’t have the same type of situation.”
Key races on the ballot included the Democratic presidential primary and the state Supreme Court race. There were also many local races on the ballot.
Results of the election are not expected to be released until Monday, following a judge’s ruling.
