ALTON - A floor below the Riverbender.com news offices, voters from across Alton's Third Precinct are casting their ballots.
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Election judges at the Riverbender.com Community Center polling place said as many as 136 voters from a possible approximately 900 had voted by 2:45 p.m., and two more people were coming to cast their ballots as soon as the judges gave that number. They said the majority of voters came around a noontime rush, and said they expected the number to increase as people left from work for the day.
Besides the mayoral race and alder people candidates, Altonians are also being asked to decide whether or not they want to allow a one percent sales tax, which would be a county-wide initiative to help fund certain aspects of school districts - such as land acquisition and structural improvements.
Madison County Clerk Debra Ming-Mendoza said voter turnout was reportedly low from what she has heard through precinct reports, adding she did not have access to the complete data at that time. She was contacted by Riverbender.com before the noontime rush experienced by election judges at the community center, however. She did add municipalities experiencing contested races, such as Alton, were seeing slightly higher turnouts.
Polling places close at 7 p.m. throughout the county, and Riverbender.com will bring election results as soon as they begin filtering through. There will also be a live stream of the winning candidate for the Alton mayoral election's acceptance speech.
