Shawano will move voting outdoors on Tuesday

Tents to be set up in City Hall parking lot in response to COVID-19 concerns
By: 
Tim Ryan
Reporter

SHAWANO — The city of Shawano will hold its voting outdoors during Tuesday’s spring election and presidential primary out of concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voters will cast their ballots under large tents in the City Hall parking lot, 127 S. Sawyer St., in an effort to keep poll workers and residents as safe as possible, the city said.

“We are planning on having the ballot machines available for the voters to place their opti-scan ballot in the machine as they do at a typical election,” City Clerk Lesley Nemetz said.

“We will be taking every precaution possible to ensure that our workers and residents are safe,” Nemetz said. “We do plan to have someone making sure that the recommended social distancing requirements are being followed to the best of our ability.”

The social distancing precautions and limited number of staff could lead to longer wait times for voters, Nemetz said.

“Our primary concern is the health and safety off all those in attendance,” she said, and asked that voters on Tuesday be patient.

Many voters have already taken advantage of absentee voting to avoid coming out to the polls on Tuesday.

“Typically for this election we would have somewhere around 350 absentee ballots requested. We are currently at 1,400,” Nemetz said Thursday afternoon.

She said that could mean a lower turnout on Tuesday.

The parking lot entrance closest to City Hall will be blocked off starting on Sunday as the city prepares the site for Tuesday’s voting.

As of Thursday, the weather forecast for Tuesday called for a 40% chance of isolated thunderstorms.

“If the weather proves to be too much of a challenge, we would then go to our normal election set-up of being indoors, however with very limited number of voters in the building at a time,” Nemetz said.

The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Nemetz noted City Hall won’t be conducting any other business on Tuesday. Tax and court payments can be placed in the drop box located to the left of City Hall’s front door.

Voters have one more day to cast ballots in person with curbside voting at City Hall ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Curbside voting, as well as registering to vote, is available from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday.

There is no voting or registration allowed on Monday under state law.

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