Paul Piotrowski retired as a sergeant with the Stevens Point Police Department and later spent about 18 months working as Stevens Point City Clerk. (Metro Wire photo)

Clerk: voter turnout in city 86 percent

November 14, 2018November 17, 2018

By Brandi Makuski

City Clerk Paul Piotrowski said more than 85 percent of registered voters hit the polls on Nov. 6.

Just over 12,103 individual voters cast ballots in the midterm elections last week. According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Stevens Point had 14,096 registered voters on Nov. 1, but many more registered to vote after that date, the clerk said.

Piotrowski is new in his role and didn’t immediately know if the turnout set a city record, but on Monday he did say “it’s probably close, it’s up there.”

Similarly-high turnouts were reported in Plover, where Clerk Karen Swanson said of the 10,000 eligible voters in the village, more than 7,000 cast ballots on Nov. 6. That means the village saw a lot of voter registration after Nov. 1, when the WEC reports 6,989 voters had registered. All told, Swanson said, she estimated about 90 percent turnout of all registered voters.

In Park Ridge, 350 of the 395 registered voters cast ballots. Whiting polls saw 924 of 1,009 registered voters.

Piotrowski said every election cycle the Wisconsin Elections Commission randomly chooses one district from each county for an audit. Next week, ballots in Stevens Point District 3 will be recounted by hand, he said.

The audit is open for public inspection and will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 19 in Conference Room D of the County-City Building, 1515 Strongs Ave.