By Maureen Vander Sanden
SLN Staff
Even with a relatively low voter turnout, poll workers in the Town of Spring Prairie had their work cutout for them Tuesday, as officials had to call Walworth County Sheriff’s deputies to assist with a few “unruly unregistered voters,” the clerk-treasurer reported.
Debbie Collins, with her team of three poll workers, spent nearly an hour corralling a trio of heifers that she said, “literally showed up on the steps of the town hall.”
“Life is never dull in Spring Prairie,” she said at the Walworth County Clerk’s Office later that day, where she turned in the township’s 472 ballots cast – a little more than 30 percent of the town’s legal voters.
Collins said the loose herd wandered north on Highway 120 toward the town hall at about 1:15 p.m., crossing the roadway, from their nearby pasture on Buddy Short’s adjacent farm, before ending up at the municipal building.
“They are a little intimidating,” Collins said, “but a lot of people who stopped to vote helped corral them.”
According to Collins, police were called to the area about an hour earlier for a report of the loose animals.
She said town officials worked together to move them behind the town hall building, keeping them away from traffic.
Shortly after, neighbor Bob Bleser came to help out, bringing halters.
“He got the girls haltered with help from several other area residents and they were tied to the recycling area fence,” she said.
Around 3:15 p.m., Short retrieved them at the town hall, tying the heifers to the bumper of his truck, and then led them down the shoulder of the road.
Election Inspector Stevie Taylor assisted with traffic control to keep the animals safe until they were penned up at Short’s farm, Collins said.
“Chasing down cows,” Collins said is just another day in small, rural country town that is Spring Prairie.
“It added a little interest to our day,” she said.
