Turnout spikes at a record 93% in Ozaukee

Ozaukee County voters, like those across the country, smashed records as they cast their ballots in Tuesday’s presidential election.

They turned out in unprecedented numbers to vote absentee, either by mail or in person, and lined up outside of polls on election day. In the end, 92.5% of Ozaukee county voters cast ballots.

In the Town of Port Washington, for example, turnout was 92% with 1,049 of the town’s 1,136 registered voters casting ballots.

The official population of the town is only 1,661.

This was the first time more than 1,000 voters cast ballots in an election, Town Clerk Heather Krueger said, noting that during the last presidential election turnout was in the 800s.  

When voter number 1,000 walked in to the polls, she said, applause broke out in Town Hall and election workers captured the moment on camera.

Ironically, she said, that voter was the daughter of the first person to vote at Town Hall on Tuesday.

“It was pretty special,” Krueger said.

This year’s countywide turnout was significantly higher than the last presidential election in 2016. Only 86.6% of voters cast ballots in that election. The previous high turnout was in 2012, when 84% of voters cast ballots, according to the Ozaukee County Clerk’s office.

Even with the record absentee balloting, there were still long lines at many polls when they opened Tuesday morning. At Port Washington City Hall, the line extended almost two blocks, around Grand Avenue and up Wisconsin Street, while at the Feith Family YMCA in Saukville, voters snaked through the building and halfway around the outdoor track.

Ozaukee County voters kept their Republican tradition going, especially in the northern portion of the county, but there were pockets in the cities of Mequon, Port Washington and Cedarburg where former Vice President Joe Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump.

The two even tied at 631 votes each in Mequon’s 13th and 14th wards, which are counted together. Four of Mequon’s voting districts went for Biden and eight went for Trump.

Three of Cedarburg’s wards went for Biden while the other four voted for Trump. Two Port districts, the 3rd and 6th, also voted for Biden while the other five went for the incumbent. 

  In the county overall, Trump, a Republican, received 55.2% of the votes cast, or 33,911. That is similar to the 2016 vote when  he received 55.8% of the ballots cast, or 30,458. 

But more county voters voted for Trump’s Democratic opponent this year than in 2016. Biden, the Democratic nominee, garnered 43.2% of the vote this year, or 26,513 ballots, while Hillary Clinton received 37% of the vote in 2016, or 20,167.

Unlike years past, much of this year’s voting was done absentee, something attributed by many to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the City of Port Washington, for example, almost 67% of voters cast their ballots absentee by the close of in-person early voting Friday, Clerk Susan Westerbeke said. Only 240 absentee ballots had not been returned by that time.

Similar numbers were reported by other communities. The Village of Grafton reported 63% of voters cast ballots absentee as of Monday. In the Village of Belgium 45% were cast absentee and in the Village of Saukville the number was about 60%.

During the 2016 presidential race, only 38% of the ballots, or 21,042 of 55,207 cast, were absentee, according to the County Clerk’s office.

“It started with the April election,” Westerbeke said. “People weren’t sure what would happen with Covid and they didn’t want to miss their chance to vote.”

In April, she said, 3,321 of the city’s 7,549 registered voters, or about 44%, voted absentee.

“It’s going to be interesting once Covid is behind us if the trend continues with absentee balloting,” Westerbeke said, noting voting on election day has been a strong tradition in the city for decades.

Just how seriously Ozaukee County residents take the issue of voting was illustrated by one Town of Port Washington mother, who Krueger said drove roughly 400 miles to collect her college-age child’s absentee ballot, which they had failed to mail in time, and return it to Town Hall to be tallied.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Krueger said.

Westerbeke noted that a number of residents voted curbside because they were ill, some with the coronavirus.

Election day was largely calm and peaceful, officials said, with voters coming in steadily throughout the day.

In several polling places, including those in the city and town of Port Washington, members of the Austrian Parliament stopped in to see how elections are run here, Westerbeke said. 

They seemed to be impressed by the complexities of dealing with absentee ballots, early in-person voting and election day voting, she noted.

In addition to supporting Trump for president, Ozaukee County voters leaned Republican across the ballot.

They voted for U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican, over his Democratic challenger Jessica King, 36,257-24,268.

In the 23rd State Assembly race, they supported incumbent Jim Ott, a Republican, over Deb Andraca by a vote of 13,607-9,365, but Andraca was the presumed winner. In the 24th Assembly race, county residents voted for Republican Dan Knodl, who retained his seat, over challenger Emily Siegrist, 4,142-3,188.

In local races, District Attorney Adam Gerol was re-elected with 44,663 votes, County Clerk Julie Winkelhorst with 44,902 votes, County Treasurer Josh Morrison with 44,640 votes and Register of Deeds Ronald Voigt with 45,073 votes. All ran unopposed.