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Unregistered ungulates lead to voting delay

TOWN OF SPRING PRAIRIE — Things were moving along nicely late Tuesday afternoon when a ruckus ensued on the front steps of the Spring Prairie Town Hall in eastern Walworth County.

Three unregistered voters who refused to leave were blocking voter access. Town Clerk Debbie Collins looked up from her post at the voter registration table to see what the fuss was about.

"Two heifers and a calf were standing there at the front steps," Collins said. "Some voters were concerned.

"Although we like to think everyone in Spring Prairie is a farmer, not everyone is," Collins said. "Some people were keeping their distance."

A chapter on "Cattle blocking the entrance to the polling place" is not included in the clerk's manual on election day procedures. Outside experts were called in.

"A farm neighbor came by with halters, and we tied the cows up in back of the town hall near the ball diamond," Collins said. "That restored access to the polls."

Collins then had to decide how she was going to remove the uninvited guests from the property.

"Another neighbor came by and tied to the cows up to the bumper of his pickup," Collins said. "By this time deputies had arrived and the cows were led to the neighbor's farm behind the truck, which was going slowly down the side of Highway 120."

In the meantime, voting continued at the town hall. A total of 472 ballots were cast, and every single one was counted. The three attempted bovine ballots were dismissed for lack of proper registration.