City clerk reports high turnout for early and absentee voting

City of Rhinelander residents have taken advantage of the opportunity to vote early and avoid the expected large crowds on Election Day, city clerk Austyn Zarda reported during the Oct. 28 meeting of the Rhinelander Common Council.

As of Monday evening, the clerk’s office had 681 absentee ballots requested by mail, Zarda told the alders. “Five hundred forty-one of those have been returned as of this afternoon, so that’s about an 80% return rate, which is probably within the top 15 to 20% for municipalities in the state, which is really good.”

 “We’ve had 329 people early vote in person,” he added. “I appreciate all the voters for coming out early to vote, and I appreciate the other department heads in City Hall for dealing with the increased traffic. This has been by far the highest early voting in-person turnout that I’ve ever seen.”

“Along with those two, with our nursing homes (where voting took place on Oct. 14), we are at 925 voters have already cast their ballot in the City of Rhinelander out of about 4,300 registered voters, so that’s about 21.5% of people have already cast their ballot,” Zarda added

Zarda concluded his remarks with a reminder that in-person early voting ends this Friday (today) at 4.30 p.m.

“I highly recommend folks come out, vote early, get it done with, because it’s going to be very busy on Election Day,” he added.

For those who can’t vote early, or prefer to cast their vote on Election Day, the polling location for all city residents is the Hodag Dome. 

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].