Madison and Dane County officials told residents at a news conference Monday polling locations would be prepared for a high voter turnout in Wisconsin’s Feb. 19 primary.

“Mayor Cieslewicz and I and our County Clerk Bob Ohlsen want to assure citizens that we will be ready, that there will be ample ballots when they go to vote, that we have mechanisms in place for making sure ballots get where they [are] needed,” Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said.

Officials said polling locations would have enough ballots and workers to prevent any voters from waiting in long lines.

Ohlsen said a 50-55 percent voter turnout is expected, but the county is preparing for an even higher number of voters. He said with Democratic candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaking at the Kohl Center on Tuesday turnout could be as high as 60 percent.

The county has ordered ballots for a 62 percent voter turnout, a total of nearly 260,000 ballots for all of Dane County. “If people run out they can get to a local municipality and back to their polling places without a whole lot of hassle,” Ohlsen said of the county’s plan to have back-up ballots located throughout the region.

According to Cieslewicz, a high voter turnout is expected for numerous reasons.

“One, of course, is that there is a very exciting, interesting race on the Democratic side and also because, come November, Wisconsin will be a swing state,” he said.

“I would expect that we’ll get regional attention over the course of the next week that, in turn, will help drive voter turnout, which we expect to be high in any case,” Cieslewicz said.

Municipal, town and village clerks in Dane County are preparing for the upcoming primary by holding training sessions for poll workers, according to Ohlsen.