Wisconsin voters cast 55,659 absentee ballots in person on the first day of early voting, a 65% spike compared to four years ago.
In terms of raw numbers, Dane and Milwaukee counties had the largest jumps. But on a percentage basis, some of the largest increases were reported by clerks in rural areas.
Florence County clerks reported 42 early, in-person voters Tuesday, an increase of 250% over the 12 who turned out on the first day it was offered four years ago. Almost all of those early votes were cast in the Town of Florence.
Clerk/Treasurer Jessica Klumpp said in a phone interview that within the last year the town has implemented an outreach program to notify voters interested in early, in-person voting when the option would be available. That included sending a text message and email on Monday with the hours, along with promoting it through a sign in front of the office.
The Town of Florenace reported 40 in-person votes cast Tuesday, compared to 12 on the first day it was available in 2022.
Klumpp said the community has a lot of residents who leave for the winter.
“These are for the most part voters who vote every election,” she said. “Sometimes they would be mail-in voters that just came in instead because they knew it was here. It didn’t have to go to them in the mail, it didn’t have to get back to us in the mail.”
Observers were keenly interested in what the first day of in-person early voting would look like amid a dip in the initial numbers of mail-in ballots. Adding in the in-person ballots cast, clerks have reported 257,777 absentee votes returned so far. That’s 15.6% less than the 305,453 that had been reported as returned at the same point four years ago.
Some have suggested voters are hesitant to send their ballots through the mail with concerns over delays within the U.S. Postal Service and President Donald Trump’s efforts to place new restrictions on mail-in voting.
Clerks in Dane and Milwaukee counties reported 15,823 in-person votes cast Tuesday. That accounted for 28.4% of the in-person votes clerks reported statewide, in line with the 29.1% of early votes from the two deep blue counties on the first day it was offered in 2022.
Two other key areas of the state are the WOW around Milwaukee and BOW counties in the Fox River valley.
Waukesha and Ozaukee counties reported a more than 39% bump in in-person voting on the first day compared to four years ago, while it spiked 123% in Washington County.
Combined, the three accounted for 20.1% of the early votes cast Tuesday, compared to 23% four years ago.
Brown County clerks reported a nearly 73% increase in early, in-person voting Tuesday, while it was up almost 50% in Winnebago County and almost 42% in Outagamie County.
Combined, the 6,273 early, in-person votes accounted for 11.2% of those cast statewide, compared to 11.7% four years ago.
Wisconsin doesn’t track voters by partisan affiliation, making it difficult to read who’s benefiting from the uptick in early, in-person voting. The updates posted by the Elections Commission Wednesday are also based on reports from local clerks through the MyVote system, and there’s often a lag in getting updated numbers.
The Elections Commission update, for example, listed no early, in-person votes cast in the Village of Elm Grove in Waukesha County after listing 131 on the first day it was available in 2022. But Clerk Crystal Turner said in a phone interview 215 were cast.
That underscores that it will take days to get a fuller picture of the early vote in Wisconsin.
“I think it’s just because it’s a good option for them, especially if they’re snow birds or not around, so they’re able to cast their ballots earlier,” Turner said.