The Town Council election garnered more voters than past elections but officials would still like to see more.
There were a total of 263 votes plus the 11 provisional votes for a total of 274 votes in all. There were 111 early votes cast and 152 voters cast their ballots on Election Day, Oct. 7. Brenda Young, Town Clerk-Treasurer said that the 274 was about a third more than the 209 votes in 2019. She said they’re glad to see a larger turnout.
“I think the turnout was about what I expected,” said Democrat Election Board Member Evan Knox. “At times today we had lines and other than that it was a pretty steady flow.”
Heather Nicholson, Republican Election Board Member said it was a good turnout, with steady lines all day and they were never really backed up.
“About a third were from early voting though, and that gave everyone a chance to vote no matter what,” said Nicholson.
She said she thinks part of the problem with the smaller elections is that people don’t realize how much local elections influence their daily lives.
“Their votes have so much power, and it’s obvious because we have an almost three-way tie,” said Nicholson. “So, it’s very obvious that each and every vote counts.”
She said the people who are in charge of local politics are extremely important to the daily lives of the townspeople.
“I would encourage people to take this kind of election more seriously and realize that they have a lot of power when it comes to a local election,” said Nicholson.
Justin Schwenk, the Brown County Democrat Party Chair, said he has gratitude for the voters who came out, and it’s always harder in off-year elections to gain the passion to vote which always causes numbers to suffer.
“I think for it being a town election only and only members of that one district being allowed to vote, I think it was a good, successful turnout,” said Schwenk.
He said everyone he spoke to said it went smoothly and any participation is positive.
It would be wonderful although highly unlikely that you would get 100 percent participation, but it would be lovely if we had such dedicated civic engagement,” said Schwenk. “Unfortunately, we don’t, but I anticipate that next year’s election or even the primary in May is going to be equal to or a better turnout once you bring the full county’s electorate into the mix.”
Schwenk said he’s looking forward to taking more ownership in the upcoming election in 2024 and he and his team learned some valuable lessons that they’ll take and learn from.
“I read somewhere that one election ends and one election begins,” said Schwenk. “So now it’s time to take what we learned and start preparing.”
The Democrat was unable to reach Mark Bowman, Brown County GOP Chair.
