Come November, nearly 15,000 new Uniform Addresses will have been assigned to property owners in Marathon County as part of a public safety project to move to a grid-based Uniform Addressing System. The new addresses should not cause voter identification problems at the polls on Nov. 6 for the midterm elections.

Marathon County staff have been working with the Wisconsin Election Board in Madison to supply poll workers with cross-reference tables of former and new (uniform) addresses in Marathon County. This cross-check will verify voters who may still have a form of voter ID that lists an old address.

According to Marathon County Clerk Nan Kottke, “The municipal clerks and poll workers were well prepared for the August primary, and everything went smoothly.”

It is not yet known if the four towns of Brighton, Holton, Hull and Spencer can be completed before the re-addressing project is suspended in November 2018 due to weather. The eight municipalities of Berlin, Bern, Halsey, Hamburg, Johnson, Rib Falls, Rietbrock, and Stettin will not receive new Uniform Addresses until after the project starts up again in May 2019. County staff will make further announcements this fall when they can determine the best and safest place to stop installing address and road signposts and pause the project for the winter.Voters from towns or villages participating in the Uniform Addressing project who have not yet received an official notice of address change from the county should continue to use their current address for voting and all other activities (driver license renewals, check re-ordering, etc.). For public safety reasons, new addresses cannot be released before official notices are mailed.

When the Uniform Addressing project finishes in 2019, more than 20,000 properties across Marathon County will have received new addresses and more than 600 roads will have been re-named.

The project was first approved by the Marathon County Board of Supervisors in February 2016 in an effort to improve public safety county-wide by helping police, fire, and medical services more accurately locate properties during emergencies.

The public can view tips, address-change checklists, project updates, and progress maps anytime by visiting www.MyMarathonCountyAddress.org.

As of Oct. 12, the 41 municipalities participating in the Marathon County Uniform Addressing project include: Bergen, Berlin, Bern, Bevent, Brighton, Cassel, Cleveland, Day, Easton, Eau Pleine, Elderon (town), Elderon (village), Emmet, Frankfort, Franzen, Green Valley, Guenther, Halsey, Hamburg, Harrison, Hewitt, Holton, Hull, Johnson, Knowlton, Marathon (town), McMillan, Mosinee (town), Norrie, Plover, Reid, Rib Falls, Rietbrock, Ringle, Spencer (town), Stettin, Stratford (village) Texas, Wausau (town), Weston (town), Wien.

As of Oct. 12, the 21 municipalities not participating in the Marathon County Uniform Addressing project include: Abbotsford, Athens, Birnamwood, Brokaw, Colby, Dorchester, Edgar, Fenwood, Hatley, Kronenwetter, Maine, Marathon City (village), Marshfield, Mosinee (city), Rib Mountain, Rothschild, Schofield, Spencer (village), Unity, Wausau (city), Weston (village).