Heavy absentee vote reflects voter interest
The Crosby-Ironton and Brainerd school district offices have had a steady stream of voters stopping in and voting via absentee ballots.
The Brainerd district office has received 737 completed absentee ballots as of Friday afternoon but expected many more to be mailed back or filled out by walk-in voters before 5 p.m. Monday.
During a typical Brainerd School Board election, the district on average receives about 50-100 absentee ballots. The district has never had more than 100 absentee ballots during a school board election in recent years, said Carolyn Johnson, administrative secretary an
Brainerd School District administrative secretary Carolyn Johnson (left), an election official, helped Eugene Schroeder with election materials Friday while Ronda Schiebout registered for an absentee ballot for the school district operating levy referendum at the Washington Educational Services Building.
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d election official.
The C-I district office doesn't keep track of the number of absentee ballots and has given them to the precincts in which the absentee voters are registered to be recorded there.
According to Crow Wing County Auditor Deborah Erickson, there are 22,950 registered voters in the Brainerd School District and 6,757 registered voters in the Crosby-Ironton School District in the county. There are an additional 1,253 registered voters in the Brainerd School District who live in Cass County, according to the Cass County auditor's office. And there are four parcels within the Brainerd School District in Morrison County as well.
The last Brainerd School Board election was Nov. 8, 2005, in which 1,803 votes were cast. For the March 12, 2002, bond referendum to build Forestview Middle School, there were a total of 8,543 votes cast, 4,314 yes votes and 4,221 no votes, according to the district.
In December of 2002, C-I voters overwhelmingly passed a $20.5 million bond referendum for building improvements with a total of 2,782 votes cast, 1,864 yes votes and 918 no votes, according to Dispatch records. In December of 2003, C-I barely passed its current $404 per pupil operating levy referendum by 15 votes with a total of 2,852 votes cast, according to the district. Two other operating levy questions on that ballot each asking for a $100 per pupil unit increase failed.