Deflated dome doesn't derail democracy

The city of Rhinelander had to act fast in finding a different voting location for the April 1 election after the Hodag Dome, originally planned to be the voting site, unexpectedly deflated on March 30 because of severe winter weather. 

City clerk Austyn Zarda said when he heard of what happened with the dome and it was clear it wouldn’t be a viable option for voting anymore, he “immediately” contacted Oneida County clerk Tracy Hartman, dome manager Janet Jamison and School District of Rhinelander superintendent Eric Burke.

The James Williams Middle School was then determined to be the alternate location, he said. 

Next, Zarda said, he contacted the Wisconsin Elections Commission to figure out what the process is when a voting location needs to change on such short notice.

“So honestly, it was a lot of phone calls to kind of all the major partners when it comes to elections,” he said. 

Zarda has been Rhinelander’s clerk since 2022. He said previously, before the dome, voting locations for the city consisted of multiple places — the Oneida County Aging and Disability Resource Center and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office.

The middle school gym, Zarda said, “actually worked out perfectly.”

“So the amount of space that we take up inside the Hodag Dome, the gym at the junior high was pretty much the exact same size,” he said. “It definitely worked out really well for us. Of course, it wasn’t the turnout that we saw in November where we had lines go all the way up the ramp at the dome, but it did allow us to get everybody inside the building, especially with the inclement weather, which was really important to us for having that as an alternate location.”

Rhinelander could’ve had record breaking numbers for a spring election this year, Zarda said, with 2,347 people who voted. He indicated he has yet to confirm whether it was, but believes it will be very close to the record set during the 2016 spring election which saw high voter turnout due to competitive primary elections for both major parties. 

Zarda said voter turnout for the November 2024 election totaled roughly 3,900.

“So having an alternate location, with a little over 48 hours notice, to go into what very well could be the highest turnout in an April election, at least in recorded history for the city of Rhinelander, I think is pretty cool and pretty impressive,” he said. “And I think it was really a team effort between our poll workers, as well as our community partners for getting the word out so everybody knew where we were actually going. Janet actually told me the dome only had one person that showed up to the doors of the dome trying to figure out where their polling location was and they were able just to say ‘Turn around, it’s across the street.’”

Zarda said the work involved in getting the word out of the last minute switch included lots of signage put up around the city, businesses spreading the information word of mouth and contacting local media outlets.

“So I think that worked out pretty well that we were able to have record breaking turnout for kind of such short-notice,” he said. 

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].