Early Voting Through Friday; Downtown Drivers Still Haven't Mastered One-Way Streets

WAUKESHA — Advance voting for the Aug. 11 partisan primary is underway at City Hall, 201 Delafield Street, and will continue through Friday, Aug. 7. The location has been publicized for weeks. This has not stopped the downtown one-way grid from doing what it does.

Jim, 44, of the east side, who asked that his last name be withheld because he still intends to vote there three more times before the runoff and does not want the poll workers to recognize him, said he spent 22 minutes circling the block Monday morning before giving up and parking four blocks away, on a stretch of St. Paul Avenue he was fairly sure was still legal.

"I saw the building probably six times," Jim said. "I was never once able to turn toward it."

Wrong Way, Right Idea

Linda Chen, 52, said she made a different kind of wrong turn. Attempting what she believed was a shortcut to City Hall, Chen instead entered the Newhall Avenue underpass, which runs beneath the tracks on the south side between West Avenue and Grand Avenue, heading the direction that took her under the tracks rather than toward downtown. She said she realized her error only after crossing the rail line itself, at which point she pulled into a gas station to reassess.

"I have lived here fourteen years," Chen said. "I know about the underpass. I have used the underpass. I still somehow used it to leave the exact place I was trying to get to."

"I know about the underpass. I have used the underpass. I still somehow used it to leave the exact place I was trying to get to."

— Linda Chen, 52, early voter

Chen ultimately reached City Hall nineteen minutes later than planned, having circled back north on Grand Avenue and approached from a direction she described as "the one that finally worked, and I could not tell you why."

The 18 Percent

Poll workers stationed at the City Hall entrance said Monday that they have begun informally tracking voter demeanor on arrival, and estimate that roughly 18 percent of first-time early voters reach the building already visibly frustrated, a figure attributed almost entirely to the parking and approach rather than the ballot itself.

"By the time some of these folks get to the table, they're not thinking about the primary anymore," said one poll worker, who declined to be named because she was not authorized to speak on behalf of the City Clerk's office. "They're thinking about the left turn they weren't allowed to make on Broadway."

Bob Krueger, 72, a retired city Department of Public Works supervisor reached for comment, said the grid was not designed to be hostile, only that it had never been redesigned to be otherwise. "Every generation of new voter finds this out for themselves," Krueger said. "It's practically a rite of passage. Somewhere between the second wrong turn and the third, you become a Waukesha resident."

Through Friday

The City Clerk's office confirmed advance voting continues weekdays through Aug. 7 ahead of the Aug. 11 partisan primary, and said no changes to signage or building access are planned before then. Voters are asked to bring a valid photo ID and, per the office's informal guidance, to budget extra time "for the block."

Jim said he intends to vote in person again for the general election in the fall, weather and grid permitting. Chen said she has already begun mapping an alternate route for her next visit, one that does not, under any circumstances, pass beneath the train tracks.