Wisconsin eclipsed the 1 million mark for absentee ballots as more than 75,500 people took advantage of the first day of early, in-person voting, according to the state Elections Commission.
The city of Milwaukee led the way with over 4,000 in-person absentee ballots cast. That’s more than double the city of Madison, which ranked second in turnout with some 1,800 voters casting ballots in-person absentee.
Both cities — as well as Green Bay, Kenosha, Stevens Point, Sheboygan and many others — reported lines at polling places on the first day of the two-week early voting period.
Other municipalities that reported high turnout include:
*Eau Claire, 1,283
*Kenosha, 1,126
*New Berlin, 1,075
*Menomonee Falls, 944
*Racine, 933
*Sun Prairie, 869
*Waukesha, 787
*Green Bay, 485
The data provided by the Elections Commission is an incomplete snapshot of the overall turnout picture. As of this morning, only 750 of the 1,850 municipalities were able to report turnout figures from the first day of early voting.
According to the Elections Commission, that’s because more than 1,000 municipal clerks do not have direct access to the voter registration system where data on absentee ballots is stored. Instead, they rely on county officials or clerks from neighboring municipalities to enter data for them.
According to the latest update, just less than 1 million mail-in absentee ballots have been received, while 75,519 early, in-person ballots were cast.
By comparison, 172,828 absentee ballots were cast by mail in 2016, while 674,424 were through early, in-person voting. The 2016 turnout was just shy of 3 million.
See the data:
https://elections.wi.gov/index.php/node/7193
