Reported record turnout for general election

Lisa Payne is relieved the 2020 general election is behind her.

The Antelope County clerk and election commissioner jokingly described the stress of prepping for the election as about an 11 on a scale of one to 10.

“I would say the stress is normal,” Payne said. “We are still finishing up.”

She has seen many elections since she started working for the county clerk’s office in May 2005.

Payne was elected as the county clerk in 2014 and took office the next year.

She noted the 3,615 voters out of the 4,570 registered in the county – 79.1 percent – who cast ballots for the Nov. 3 election were likely a record turnout.

“However, I do not have the number of registered voters for previous elections, so it is hard to put a definite on this answer,” Payne said.

She mentioned her office sent out 1,379 ballots for early voting and received 1,340 back.

“I believe the early ballot application/process is secure,” Payne said.

She shared the following number of voters who cast ballots per polling precinct in the election:

-Clearwater: 480.

-Orchard: 324.

-Royal: 136.

-Brunswick: 370.

For the Brunswick Village Board of Trustees, incumbents Craig Forbes, Joseph Rumsey and Edwin Wahrer were listed on ballots as running for three seats on the board.

Wahrer captured 39 votes, while Forbes and Rumsey each earned 35 votes for the four-year positions. There were 23 write-in votes.

However, Payne confirmed one of the candidates who ran for the village’s five-member board did not have to.

“Craig Forbes did not need to run for the Brunswick Village Board of Trustees,” Payne said. “He filed a candidate filing form.”

Three Brunswick board seats – those belonging to Wahrer, Rumsey and Jim Meuret – were up for election in 2020, but Forbes’ was not, as he has two years left on his term.

“His name should not have been allowed on it,” Meuret said. “That is the whole problem here. It will be fine either way. No one is losing any sleep over it.”

Meuret ran as a write-in candidate for the Brunswick board, of which he is the chair, and received 19 votes in the election.

“I have no idea if they will appoint me, but I would assume so,” Meuret said of the other board members. “I did miss the filing deadline for incumbents, so I filed as a write-in.”