Voting provides little respite for Brainerd mayor

■ Voting provides little respite for Brainerd mayor

Even while casting his ballot Tuesday morning, Brainerd Mayor James Wallin was fielding election related questions. While at his north Brainerd polling place at The Center (formerly the Lakes Area Senior Activity Center) Wallin received a cellphone call from a northeast Brainerd resident seeking information about the proper polling place.

Wallin completed his ballot, confirmed the correct location with election judges and passed along the information to the caller.

The Ward 2 Precinct 2 polling site election judges reported steady morning traffic with 116 voters casting ballots by 9:15 a.m.

A woman who had just voted walked to her pick-up on Kingwood Street and commented, “There are more people here than on doughnut day.”

■ Long lines at . . . Walgreen’s

The mid-morning lines at Brainerd’s Walgreen’s were longer than at the polling precinct of at least one voter Tuesday. The drug store’s cash registers were temporarily shut down Tuesday and clerks were taking cash, calculating the sales tax by calculator.

■ Baxter City Hall

Voters were lined up outside Baxter City Hall to vote at 6:30 a.m. with the polling place opening at 7 a.m. Strong turnout was reported across Crow Wing County. The White Precinct in Unorganized Territory was the first one in the door at the courthouse about 9:20 p.m. to start the election result reporting.

■ Wolford Township has large voter turnout

Rebecca Guida, Wolford Township clerk and election judge for about 20 years said this year had the largest turnout in her years as a judge. Out of 250 registered voters, 209 voted at the precinct and 21 registered at the polls and 18 voting absentee.

■ Strong turnout reported in Crow Wing County

A turnout of nearly 80 percent is expected for Crow Wing County.

Deborah Erickson, Crow Wing County deputy auditor and elections coordinator, said there was a strong turnout at the polls Tuesday and many new voter registrations.

There are 37,975 registered voters in Crow Wing County.

Crow Wing County’s record turnout to date came in 2004 with 81.2 percent voter turnout. The year with the most voters came in 2008 with 35,299 people turning out at the polls.