Local voting goes smoothly despite concerns

Despite the uncertainty surrounding Tuesday’s election, voting went off without a hitch in Fredonia, Village Clerk Sandi Tretow said.

“It was a great day, actually. I was really happy,” she said.

Final results, and winners, won’t be known until Monday, April 13, but Tretow said total votes cast so far were 677 when the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The number includes about 400 absentee ballots that have been returned from 463 mailed out, she said.

The total turnout, which could go up in the next week as more absentee ballots are returned, represents about 50% of the village’s registered voters, Tretow said.

That’s down from the April 2016 presidential preference election when 863 people voted and both political parties had contested races on the ballot.

The only contested local race on this year’s ballot was for Ozaukee County supervisor, with Village Trustee Joshua Haas challenging incumbent Don Dohrwardt. 

“I thought we did pretty well compared to 2016. I was very pleased,” Tretow said.

Tuesday’s voting was in doubt after Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Monday ordered that the election be postponed until June 9. But the order was quickly overturned by the state Supreme Court, which said state law required the election be held April 7.

Shortly after that ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that completed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and received by the end of the day Monday, April 13.

Concerns over the Covid-19 epidemic prompted officials to erect plastic shields between voters and poll workers, and many voters donned protective masks.

“Sometimes it was a little hard to hear them,” Tretow said, but no one was required to remove their mask for identification purposes.

“We pretty much know everybody,” she said.

Tretow had 14 poll workers lined up to work election day, but 10 — many of them elderly or with underlying health problems — bowed out.

In the end, Tretow said, she was able to buttress the ranks with village public works employees.

A couple of poll workers from the Village of Belgium came to help, including one whose husband was on the ballot in Belgium.

“I was glad to have them,” Tretow said. “All our poll workers were amazing.”

Tretow said ballots collected by the end of election day will be kept in a counting machine under a locked cover and in a locked closet in the Fredonia Government Center.

Absentee ballots received by the end of Monday will be added.

Write-in votes for the Village Board and Northern Ozaukee School Board, where there was no candidate registered, also will be counted at that time.