Rural voters may return to live polls

Due to the poor treatment of her staff leading up to this year’s Nov. 8 general election, Rock County Auditor Ashley Kurtz is asking mail ballot precincts to return to in-person voting.
For months, Kurtz’s office fielded anonymous calls, and on Friday, Dec. 2, she addressed township supervisors at their annual association meeting.
“My staff was in tears about the way they were treated,” Kurtz said. “We have to do something. I don’t know what the answer is. We can at least start the conversation.”
Township supervisors in attendance agreed to set up times for Kurtz to meet with them individually and discuss the various voting options.
Callers to the auditor’s office who claimed the county’s voting system, especially the use of mail ballots, was fraudulent were often unpleasant.
“I am just here to start the discussion about ‘Do we want to stay with mail ballots’ or ‘Do we want to look at going back to polling places?’” Kurtz asked.
Of Rock County’s 24 voting precincts, 18 townships currently use the mail ballot process in which registered voters automatically have a ballot sent to their homes through the mail. The registered voter fills out the ballot at home following enclosed instructions. Once sealed, the ballot is mailed back to the auditor’s office to arrive on or before Election Day.
As an option, voters in a mail ballot precinct can still vote in person at the Rock County Courthouse on Election Day.
Kurtz said more than 200 voters from mail ballot precincts voted in person at the most recent election on Nov. 8.
“So I feel people are moving toward wanting to come to polling places. We have people who love mail ballots, too,” she said.
“There is not a system that is going to keep everyone happy but at the same time we need to do something different than what happened.
“This (November) was my eighth election and by far the worst election answering questions and listening to their beliefs,” Kurtz said.
While Kurtz didn’t detail specific conversations, callers frequently didn’t identify themselves and became belligerent when office staff explained the voting and canvassing processes.
Callers alleged that the mail ballot process is fraudulent with ballots mailed to deceased residents or to people not registered in the county.
“That’s really not the case,” Kurtz said. “We can explain our process from start to finish, but they still walk away.”
Canvassing of the Nov. 8 election results did not find any discrepancies in tabulation and was certified as accurate.
The Nov. 8 general election wasn’t the first election in 2022 in Rock County.
Due to a special election called to fill the open District 1 U.S. representative seat, an extra primary and election was conducted this summer in the timeframe of the 2022 midterm elections. The overlapping of deadlines led to more questions coming to the auditor’s office.
Kurtz’s conversation with township supervisors was supported by the county commissioners, who all attended the township association meeting.
Commissioner and Board Chairman Jody Reisch said commissioners directed Kurtz to have callers who have questions about the state’s voting process talk directly to the board.
“If there is an issue, we can fix it,” he said. “We all want things done the right way and we have no time for anybody to be belligerent or treat folks less than kind. I am glad Ashley brought this up today. We are open to suggestions to make this fair and good to exercise your right as a U.S. citizen.”
Township supervisors decide which voting system to use in their individual townships. Many townships turned to mail ballots due to the lack of people wanting to serve as election judges, accessible polling locations and cost of electronic voting machines.
Kurtz understands those township supervisors who’ve chosen to be mail ballot precincts and their reluctance to return to in-person voting.
“Nobody wants to sit there all day, especially at primary elections when you sit there all day for a handful of voters,” she said.