Absentee Voting Underway: Over 12,000 Ballots Already Returned

MADISON, Wis. (Civic Media)— The ballots are already coming back. The Wisconsin Elections Commission has started releasing its daily report on absentee ballot activity for the November 5 General Election.

The excel report lists each county, the ballots requested there, how many were sent, along with numbers about how many have returned to the local clerk’s office. Here’s a link if you wanted to follow along in the run-up to election day. There’s also a website, VoteHub, that takes the data and delivers it in a visual representation.  

As of September 25, Milwaukee County has had 69,721 absentee ballot applications received and 67,714 ballots sent out to voters. Of those, 1,172 completed ballots have already been returned to election officials.  Waukesha County reports 38,907 applications, 36,827 ballots sent, and 763 ballots returned. 

So far, Kenosha County reports 12,455 applications for ballots and 12,234 ballots sent.  291 have already been returned. In Racine County, they logged 12,826 applications and 12,424 ballots sent.  There, 331 have come back to be counted.  

Statewide, a total of 429,697 absentee ballots were requested, with 410,716 ballots sent out to voters. Of those, 12,831 completed ballots have already been returned across the entire state.

The WEC report, generated daily at 7:30 a.m., compiles data entered by municipal clerks across Wisconsin’s 1,850 jurisdictions. The commission notes that over 1,000 smaller municipalities rely on county clerks or neighboring officials for data entry.

Absentee ballot requests must be received by mail by Thursday, October 31 at 5:00 PM, or can be made in person until Sunday, November 3. 

All absentee ballots must be received by Tuesday, November 5 at 8:00 PM.

Early voting, or in-person absentee voting, will be available from Tuesday, October 22 to Sunday, November 3.

You can request an absentee ballot at MyVote.WI.Gov.