SHAWANO, WI – Despite Coronavirus Concerns, voting in the City of Shawano went better than expected according to Leslie Nemetz, Shawano City Clerk.
“I would say it was a successful day,” said Nemetz. “It does not seem like anyone was hesitant when they got here, everyone is just following what we have in place.”
What was in place was multiple steps to help promote the safety of both the workers and the voters. Nemetz says the only major battle was the cold and weather.
“We had blankets and heaters so everyone was making sure to keep warm,” she said. “People were maintaining a positive attitude throughout.”
Nemetz says she was not sure exactly what to expect, but the numbers are looking better than what she thought they would end up with.
“I was anticipating about 1,600 voters total, and I am assuming we are going to be a little above that.”
She says the reason for expecting fewer people was not all having to do with COVID-19 or the confusion that people may have had with all the changes to the process in the last few days, but mostly because their numbers were showing that many decided to vote absentee in the city.
“Typically we have between 300 and 350 people that would submit for this type of an election, but it looks like we are going close to 1400 absentee ballots, so it is a significant increase.”
They will not have an exact count of in-person voters right away because they started running absentee ballots on Tuesday as well.
They had plexiglass to protect the workers and voters and workers all had PPE on during the day. Pens were not shared and the voting booths were disinfected after every voter.
“It does not really look like Coronavirus fear stopped a lot of the remaining voters that still needed to vote in person. If anything, the major difference was the voters coming in masks and PPE when they voted.”
Nemetz says they did their best to keep the lines moving so voters could get in and out as soon as possible.
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