Wisconsin election: Waukesha County school, public safety referendums

voters have a multi-million dollar decision to make. In fact, a few of them about schools, public safety, and more. Waukesha County reporter Brett Lemoine live to break down some of the biggest issues on the ballot there. Hey, Brett. Hey, good evening, Ted and Mary. We've heard from election workers at three different municipalities today that turnout has been incredibly strong, and for evidence of that, look no further than here at the Waukesha County Expo Center, the line stretching well beyond the building itself. And Ted and Mary, I know that you've both been to the Waukesha County Expo Center before. It is a large venue, so seeing a line like this is quite telling. In other election News, though, we're keeping an eye on two big referendums tonight. Muskego has a $5.9 million referendum on the ballot to fund additional police officers and transition the city to a full-time fire department. Tess Corners is currently operating as a volunteer agency there. The city says if the referendum passes, money would be used to fund 16 full-time positions and 36 part-time firefighter and EMS positions. Meanwhile, voters in the Elmbrook School District have a big decision to make. On the ballot there is a $100 million school facility referendum. The district says the money would be used to renovate four schools. If approved, the district says taxes would increase by about $55 a year for owners of a $500,000 home. It's all about the money. And I think when it comes to education, whatever could be done should be done. If it takes more money, so be it. I think a lot of people are for it. We need the young kids to be educated. Now we asked voters what issues were motivating them to head to the polls today and no one mentioned anything about what was actually on the ballot. Universally everyone said big picture issues like immigration and democracy really fueled the push to get out to the polls today. Poll workers here at this particular location at the Waukesha County Expo Center told me they've had about 2,000 in-person ballots cast today, and that was just as of about an hour ago. That does not include any of the absentee ballots that are being processed as we speak. But again, just looking at that huge line here behind me is very telling that there is a lot of people here in the city of Waukesha that wanted to head to the polls today. Reporting live in Waukesha, Brett Lemoine, Fox 6 News. Brett, it sounds like there's a lot of positive momentum for the school referendum. A lot of people saying, okay, yeah, they need some money to make the improvements. Are you hearing that across the board? Pretty much, Mary, and we also can cite the school district's own data as well. They did a survey and said that they found about 67% of voters in the Elmhurst School District approved of at least putting this measure on the ballot, so they think that is a pretty good indication that it will move forward. All right. Brett Lemoyne reporting live there in Waukesha County. Thank you, Brett.