Low voter turnout expected for August partisan primary

JANESVILLE, Wis. (WMTV) - Long lines are not expected for Tuesday’s primary election. According to the Janesville City Clerk’s Office, voter turnout Tuesday is expected to be low.

Because of this, the City of Janesville has consolidated its polling locations from ten to five. This means some voters may vote at one polling place for the August primary and another for a general election in November.

Tabitha Sleeper is the Chief Election Inspector at the Rock County Resource Center in Janesville. She says poll workers are there to help the primary run smoothly.

She anticipates there will be peak voting times where it’s busier.

“We expect to kind of having a steady flow of people here today,” said Sleeper. “It’s pretty calm right now and then we’ll get stragglers as people start waking up and go back to the polls later.”

Election officials say the primary is a good chance to prepare poll workers for the November Election.

“It’s kind of the same every year so we’re kind of used to it,” said Sleeper. “This is kind of the calm before the storm. Come November, we’ll definitely see a lot more voters and it will be a lot busier.”

In Wisconsin, there are 3,618 polling locations for Tuesday’s primary. A full list of Madison locations is available here.

The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters just need to be in line at 8 p.m. to be able to vote.

Voters can check the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s MyVote Wisconsin website to verify their registration, find their polling place and see what will be on their ballot.

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