The City of Rhinelander surpassed voter turnout from the last two partisan primary elections by a couple hundred votes.
More than 1,500 people in Rhinelander voted in Tuesday’s primary.
The partisan primaries in 2022 and 2024 had about 1,200 voters.
The last four partisan primaries in Wisconsin have only seen 23-27 percent voter turnout compared to 60-70 percent voter turnout in the general elections.
Rhinelander voters WXPR spoke to said they think it’s important to vote in every election:
“It's the American way. It's a democracy, so let's do it right.”
“Because you need to vote for the person that you want to be in the general.”
“You have to vote in every election, no matter how small, how big. Your votes make the difference.”
Rhinelander City Clerk Austyn Zarda says things went smoothly throughout election day.
He’s already thinking about November’s midterm election which see much higher voter turnout.
“We have a fantastic team of poll workers. I speak about them to all the other clerks I talk to at conferences and whatnot, that I'm very fortunate to walk into a polling place where some of these poll workers have been working elections since before I was born, so they know what they're doing,” said Zarda.
The Midterm Election is Tuesday, November 3rd.
