MILWAUKEE — Each day in the Milwaukee Election Commission warehouse, 20 people spend an entire shift packing envelopes with absentee ballots. So far, Milwaukee has mailed out more than 112,000 ballots, and more than 40,000 have already been returned.

The commission estimates about 70 percent of votes cast in previous presidential elections were cast in person, with about 30 percent submitted as absentee ballots. But those numbers will likely be flipped on Nov. 3, when Wisconsinites will vote absentee in record numbers due to the pandemic.

Wednesday the city launched “Votes Count in the 414,” an informational campaign aiming to simplify the voting process for those who have registered. With three ways to cast a ballot, Votes Count says voting is as easy as 1-2-3.

The first method is the absentee ballot, which voters can return by mail or in one of 15 drop boxes across the city. Second, voters can choose in-person early voting, which begins Oct. 20 at 13 locations. The third option for voters is, of course, their neighborhood polling place on Election Day. Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Claire Woodall-Vogg said Wednesday the city has more than 3,500 election workers that will staff 173 polling sites.

Under Wisconsin law, Wisconsin clerks cannot begin counting absentee ballots until polls open on Election Day. More than 350 people will begin counting Milwaukee’s at 7 a.m. Nov. 3 and will continue well into the night and early next morning. Woodall-Vogg tells voters to expect full results when they wake up Wednesday, Nov. 4.

“It’s a very tedious process under our state laws,” she said. “I think a lot of voters expect that we can just have a free-for-all and just open the ballots and feed them into a machine, but we account for every single ballot for every single voter.”

To check your registration status or track your absentee ballot, click here.