Natrona County Clerk Pleased With Election Turnout

Natrona County Clerk Renea Vitto cruised to an easy victory in her re-election bid with 17,324 votes and no opposition in Tuesday's general election.

But that wasn't why she was so happy when it was all over.

"Today was a great turnout," said Vitto, whose office runs the elections and the duties of drafting ballots, finding polling places, hiring election judges, making sure the machines run correctly, and ensuring accurate counts.

"I was expecting 40 or 45 percent of voter turnout and thought that would be great if we got that, but we got 63 percent so I am extremely pleased," she said as her staff was closing up shop an hour-and-a-half after the polls closed.

Of the 33,674 registered voters in Natrona County,  21,349 cast ballots either by absentee voting or going to one of the 46 precincts throughout the county. The unofficial results won't be made official until the county's canvassing board meets on Friday, she said.

"Everything seemed to be going very smoothly in the polling places as well," Vitto said.

She partly credited the good weather. "If it snows, we don't get the turnout."

The lack of construction projects during the Aug. 19 primary also discouraged some voters from making their way through the traffic at precincts such as the Community Health Center near Blackmore Road in east Casper.

The voting business was so good Tuesday that some election judges saw unprecedented lines of people waiting to insert their ballots in the machines, Vitto said. "It caused a bit of a line, but I consider that a good thing."

Some of the contested races and issues probably brought out the voters, too.

The optional one-cent sales tax came up for its once-every-four-year renewal vote.

"There was a campaign on both sides, for it and against it," Vitto said. "The people were kind of passionate about how they felt; if they really wanted it passed or not,  they got out to prove their point."