WLDS/WEAI news had the chance to talk with County Clerk Jill Waggener about last night’s elections .
Waggener said that she was a bit disappointed with the total voter turnout, given that there were several contested races:
“Well, unfortunately I felt it was a little low. We only had about a 13.5 percent turnout. I was hoping it would be a little bit more than that. We did have several contested races throughout the county, which I thought maybe would have brought some more voters out but unfortunately it did not.”
Waggener did let us know that, despite the disappointment, the voter turnout actually did see a 3 percent increase over the last spring election in 2013, which is an increase of just over 700 voters.
Waggener also said that the votes are all collected, except for the “by mail” votes, which she does not believe will change any elections, but cannot say for sure for 14 days:
“Yes everything except a handful of vote by mail ballots are still out which I have 14 days to still accept those and add those in. It could bring those closer. I don’t know that it would change anything. But right now, as I said, everything is unofficial for 14 days so I don’t see that happening but I can’t guarantee that that won’t happen.”
Wagganer also wanted to thank her staff, and voters:
“I just think that we had a great day yesterday. THe problems were minimal, I had no complaints coming into the office for anything. Again, my staff and my election judges did a fantastic job for me.”
Waggener does have fourteen days to finalize those election results. The next local election will not be until next March.