Below is an article from the Oshkosh Northwestern last Thursday. The article is about the great voter turnout for the primary of last Tuesday, February 19.
I am writing to congratulate the people, the voters of Wisconsin, Winnebago County, and the city of Oshkosh for coming out last week and voting. The harder challenge is get these same people plus some more voters to vote on April 1 for the Spring General Election. In the city of Oshkosh the voters will be electing 2 school board members , a state supreme court justice, and in four districts in the city of Oshkosh there will be a contest for Winnebago County Board Supervisor.
In
districts 14,15,18, and 21 there will be A contest for Winnebago County Board please check to see if there is a contested race for County Board Supervisor in your ward-the district lines have changed. And if there is no contest remember you can still vote for the person who is standing for election to the Winnebago County Board Supervisor.
But I wanted to write to you and encourage you to find someone for the four open district. By open I mean that no none has filed for the office of Winnebago County Board Supervisor and no candidate's name will be on the ballot for the office of County Board Supervisor. Those districts are district 8 which is basically the central Neenah area, district 12 which is in Northeast part of the city of Oshkosh near the prison area, district 16 which is by the UW-Oshkosh area in the city of Oshkosh, and district 27 which is Town of Menasha area.
To get elected, someone would have to do a write-in campaign/vote. I would suggest contacting the County Clerks office to inform them you are mounting a write- campaign, then find a way to get voters in your district to write-in your name for the office for Winnebago County Board Supervisor. It could take between 50-100 such write-in votes to be elected.
If anyone has questions or need help feel free to contact me. I would suggest to find out where any County Board Supervisor Districts lines are I suggest you go to this link http://www.co.winnebago.wi.us/countyclerk/SupervisoryDistricts.htm
Help me find candidates in those four open districts that way the people who live in those districts will be ones deciding who represents them on the Winnebago County Board of Supervisors.
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Primary turnout dwarfs that of 2004 races
By Jeff Bollier
of The Northwestern
The Republicans are back.
Voter participation in Tuesday's Wisconsin presidential primary election topped 42 percent countrywide as both Democrats and Republicans took to the polls in surprisingly large numbers.
Similar to the situation in 2004 when President George W. Bush was the de facto Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain came into the Wisconsin primary with the nomination all but sewn up. Yet this year, Republican voters cast 13,055 ballots in the primary, a 220 percent increase from to the 4,072 ballots Republican voters cast in the 2004 primary.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Professor of Political Science David Siemers said the large turnout for a Republican race that is all but won by McCain was not such a big surprise.
"Bush had no opposition in 2004. In 2008, the Republicans still needed to confirm McCain was their candidate," he said.
Democrats would not be outdone, as the hotly contested race between New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama brought 30,439 voters to the polls, a 54.7 percent increase over the 19,673 votes cast in 2004 primary election three-way race between Democrats John Kerry, John Edwards and Howard Dean.
In all, nearly 20,000 more Winnebago County residents took part in Tuesday's primary than voted in the 2004 presidential primary.
Siemers said the turnout by voters from both parties continued an increase in voting since the 2000 election.
"There's been a trend upward … because of the close presidential contest in 2000," he said. "People have started to realize how important it is to get out and express their views. That we have almost 20,000 extra votes cast in the county is spectacular no matter how you slice it. It makes you feel good about democracy."
Of the 103,138 voters registered in Winnebago County, 43,494 voters cast ballots in the primary, exceeding Winnebago County Clerk Sue Ertmer's expectations. That total comes close to half of the 87,475 votes cast in the 2004 presidential election, which saw a turnout of 80 percent.
"Early in the week, I had expected 25 to 30 percent to be pretty good," Ertmer said.
Obama's victories in Oshkosh and Winnebago County were decisive on Tuesday. He won every ward in the city of Oshkosh except ward 34, a tiny island on the city's far west side, where Clinton received three of the five votes cast.
His strongest victories were in the districts containing and surrounding the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, wards 12 through 15. In the districts containing UWO, Obama received 88.4 and 89.4 percent of the votes and in the districts surrounding the university, he received 76.8 and 78.7 percent of votes cast in the Democratic contest.
Though fewer votes were cast on the Republican side, McCain garnered 60 percent of votes cast in the city of Oshkosh, almost the same as Obama's 63.3 percent of total votes cast in the city.
Throughout Winnebago County, Clinton won only two voting districts, comprised of multiple wards, one in the city of Menasha and the other in the city of Appleton.
Voting went smoothly enough throughout the day, but Ertmer said results were delayed several hours due to the high turnout, the unanticipated number of voters who registered at the polls, the need to run paper ballots in some wards and the implementation of new draft security measures the state has requested municipalities and counties put in place.
"We anticipate the changes being finalized in April," Ertmer said. "Mainly, it's logging security seals and ballot bags, noting the chains of custody, tracking poll workers and paperwork. It was a little time-consuming and confusing at this point."
Jeff Bollier: (920) 426-6688 or jbollier@thenorthwestern.com
