Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said there’s no data to predict exactly what today’s turnout will be, but “it certainly won’t be a low turnout election.”
Wolfe in a virtual Election Day update early this afternoon also said WEC has not seen any major incidents or problems with election observers so far. She spoke with reporters this afternoon before reports of a man brandishing a knife at a polling place in West Bend.
She said the commission has seen some minor reports on social media of potentially tense situations involving observers, but chief inspectors in charge of polling locations have appropriately resolved the issues.
Clerks have marked as returned 741,795 absentee ballots, but roughly 318,000 of those were in-person absentee ballots, Wolfe said. As of this morning, there were 815,267 absentee ballot requests.
The entire absentee ballot counting process is publicly observable, even if counting takes late into the night, Wolfe said.
“So there really is no part of the election administration process that’s done behind a locked door,” she said. “It’s all part of the public process, and election officials are always going to value accuracy over speed.”
She also said WEC has seen a fairly high number of calls from voters asking basic questions about how to vote or register, but there have been no reports of major issues.
Former Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Neil Albrecht at a press conference this morning said some polling locations have called MEC asking what the maximum number of election observers is for one location. There is no cap on election observers, he said. Albrecht told WisPolitics.com he is assisting current MEC Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg today.
“Observers are present for every function of an election,” he said. “Not just the voting sites, but the central processing of absentee ballots. So, in terms of the integrity of elections, I would say the public should go with what is factual and not what is speculative or allegations.”
Albrecht also said he has not heard of any observers being removed so far.
One election observer at the MEC inside city hall this morning was taking pictures of voters dropping off multiple absentee ballots. Albrecht told the observer she can’t directly engage voters.
Some voter turnout numbers include:
*Approximately 10,000 ballots had been cast as of 10 a.m. in Green Bay;
*In Madison, 47,551 ballots had been counted as of 11 a.m.:
*In Kenosha, 6,500 votes had been cast and 11,300 absentee ballots returned as of 10:15 a.m.
