Thousands register to vote at the polls on Election Day

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - Long lines stretching three hours in wait times was certainly one of the big stories in Wausau on Election Day.

“Very unusual for Wausau,” Clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde commented. “Thank you to people who did wait in line for them to be able to cast their ballots.”

“This is the highest turnout of any election that I’ve ever administered,” Kim Trueblood, Marathon County clerk said.

When asked if it was abnormal to have so many people register at the polls, Trueblood referred to municipal clerks in the room going through municipalities’ election materials. They affirmed this is the most they have seen since becoming a clerk in 2015 and 2013.

Trueblood did not have the exact number of people who registered on Election Day at the time of the interview but said she knew it was thousands. In Wausau alone, nearly 2,000 people registered at the polls. That caused longer wait times because while it is people’s right to register at the polls, it is a longer process than processing people who registered ahead of time.

“We worked with our poll workers to try to, you know, create like express lanes for people to just check in on and try to go through the lines sooner,” Bernarde explained. “So that way, you know, people then have that proof of residence document, they could go get it, instead of waiting an hour and a half, and then realize that either they were missing it or they were at the wrong poll site, which we did have that a couple times.”

The cut-off to register online was Oct. 16 and the last day to register at the clerk’s office was Friday.

“My husband and I went and voted in the City of Wausau on Saturday morning,” Trueblood began, “and there were people in line who were not registered, and they were told, ‘Well, you’ll have to go to the polls on Election Day and register because it was past the deadline.’”

However, that did not deter people.

“I heard anecdotally that there were people my age who had never, ever voted before,” Trueblood commented.

There were also young voters getting their first opportunity to vote, as well as people whose registration had lapsed, meaning they had not voted since before the 2020 presidential election.

Wausau reported 93% turnout including both at the polls and by absentee. In Marathon County, there was a nearly 96% turnout, but Trueblood said that the percentage was based on the people who had registered as of Friday. There were 14 provisional ballots for the county, which can be counted if those voters provide proper identification by 4 p.m. on Friday.

“Voters, you did a great job showing up and fulfilling your civic responsibility, and you have a lot to be proud of,” Trueblood concluded.

Outside of the long lines, the process went smoothly in Marathon County. Trueblood said she ordered 125% of the registered voter total in September anticipating a higher turnout at the polls. No polls ran out of ballots. Clerks at the county also spent a lot of time on the phone with poll workers clarifying presidential election rules, which are a little different than in other elections. Trueblood also mentioned the tabulators were not connecting to be able to send totals remotely to the county, so some of those totals had to be provided over the phone on Election Night.

Both Trueblood and Bernarde said they did not receive any challenges to any voters or any part of the process on Election Day. The next step in the process is to wait for those provisional ballots, have the municipal canvassing of the votes, and then the county canvassing.

At that point, losing candidates in eligible races could have the opportunity to request a recount of the totals.

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