Absentee voting is underway for Wisconsin’s August primary.
Voters will narrow down candidates in the state’s competitive gubernatorial and U.S. senate races.
They will also decide more local races — like the race for Vilas County Sheriff.
In that race, Captain Gerard Ritter is running against current Sheriff Joseph Fath in the Republican primary.
There are no Democratic challengers, so whoever wins the primary race will likely become sheriff.
Fath says he is running for a third term because he’s excited about the department’s upcoming projects.
“I’ve got a whole bunch of things that are coming up that I’d like to be part of,” he says. “One of them is a drug court that our current judge wants to start. I think it’s very exciting and it really dovetails with our addiction recovery programs that we’ve been operating in our jail.”
Fath was initially appointed as Vilas County Sheriff 10 years ago by former governor Scott Walker to complete the term of his predecessor. He’s been elected to serve two terms since.
If elected again, Fath says he hopes to continue the work he has been doing for the past decade.
“I’ve got ties in all of our communities. I have positive relationships with everybody,” he says. “We all work together. It’s not just our department. We work with our community and the people in the public to solve crimes and help keep people safe. I want to continue to do that.”
Fath says he is committed to completing another four-year term if he is nominated.
Join WXPR tomorrow to hear from Fath’s primary challenger — Vilas County Captain Gerard Ritter.