Large voter turnout continuing throughout the day Tuesday made for strong showing for a consolidated election in Monroe County.

“It was a really good day,” Monroe County Clerk Jonathan McLean said when all the votes had been counted late Tuesday night.

Countywide, turnout reached 29.05 percent.

In comparison, in the 2021 and 2019 consolidated elections, voter turnout was only slightly above 12 percent throughout Monroe County.

During a mid-day report by McLean, he said, “election operations have been very smooth and orderly today. There have been no major issues to report. All of our Waterloo and Columbia polling places have plenty of supplies and ballots.”

That theme continued until the polls closed at 7 p.m. with no issues reported.

The only issue was a number of outstanding vote-by-mail ballots which had not been received as of Tuesday night.

McLean said 554 vote-by-mail ballots had not been returned – including 120 from Waterloo voters – although he added those votes may only affect one race. Vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked by April 4.

On Thursday, McLean provided an update that only 12 vote-by-mail ballots have come in since election night – meaning 540 ballots are still outstanding.

“We will continue to update our count each business day and post it online,” he said Thursday.

With Waterloo Park District candidate Shelby Mathes leading Lance West by only 38 votes, McLean said it was possible the final outcome could change.

Per state law, the clerk’s office must accept vote-by-mail ballots up to two weeks after election day, provided they are postmarked by April 4 or earlier.

McLean also said he believed “several” of these ballots were considered “dead,” meaning he did not expect the total number of votes added to Tuesday’s totals to equal the number of outstanding ballots.

With contested races for mayor, city council, school board and park board, Waterloo was reporting 41 percent overall voter turnout.

With a home rule referendum and two contested aldermanic races, Columbia had 35 percent voter turnout.

The first batch of election results was posted to the clerk’s website at about 8:30 p.m. with the final results available shortly after 10 p.m.
For a complete list of elections results, visit mococlerk.com/election-results.html.