August 7, 2024 – Slinger, WI – Small-town government officials and community members were rattled on Wednesday after a newspaper column by a Milwaukee radio host berated the clerk in the Village of Slinger for being “lazy.” The column is tied to the hours available for in-person absentee voting and money offered by Washington County government to fund extended hours.
Slinger Village President Scott Stortz wrote a response below clearing up some assumptions and supporting his clerk who came under attack.
In response to the Mark Belling article run in the Wednesday, August 7, 2024, edition of the Washington County Daily News, titled “How to rig an election,” I would like to express my disappointment in its overall transparency, and give my full support to our Village Clerk Tammy Tennies.
As reference for those that did not read the article, Washington County earmarked funding to help communities extend early voting hours to make it more convenient for residents. This is a respectable gesture from the County, especially for those smaller communities that already have very limited hours, that is not the case in Slinger. As a matter of fact, Tammy was NOT the one who made the final decision; it was a staff decision, including myself that determined that spending YOUR County dollars was not necessary for the August primary.
Over the last several years, we had less than a handful of individuals that could not make the M-F 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. early voting the two weeks prior to an election, and EACH time, Tammy made arrangements to accommodate those individuals.
The Village of Slinger takes great pride in the services we offer our residents and when it comes to staffing, Tammy Tennies is nothing short of an absolute professional. With more than 12 years of experience as our clerk, she very well might be the longest serving and most reliable clerk in the entire County, and is also fully state certified, unlike many others.
On a side note, Slinger’s Clerks office is open 5 days a week, were as many townships only a few hours a week. To insinuate that Tammy is lazy or worse yet, making it more difficult for our residents to vote, is nothing short of a slap in our community’s face and I personally take offense to this.
Now, with that being said, that does not mean the Village would not consider accepting County funding for extended voting hours in advance of the November election, which by all accounts could end up being the highest turnout in this country’s history.
Scott Stortz
President, Village of Slinger
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It’s a pleasure to see someone in authority actually showing appreciation for a hard working employee. Oh and by the way I live in Jackson and just wanted to comment.