MADISON, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) – The 7th congressional district makes up about a third of Wisconsin in terms of area, and voters living there will get to decide Tuesday who fills a seat that's been empty since September when former Republican Congressman Sean Duffy resigned.

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The Wisconsin Elections Commission expects fewer problems for this special election compared to last month's presidential primary.

FILE: Former Republican Representative Sean Duffy talks with Spectrum News 1's Taurean Small during an interview.


“Things are running a lot more smoothly this time because we know, in advance, what to expect,” Reid Magney, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said.

Magney says based on requests from clerks, about 125 soldiers and airmen will be serving as poll workers across 26 counties.

Another 40 to 50 service members will be on-call to fill any last-minute shortages.

“The National Guard is a big part of this and we've known that they're going to be involved,” Magney said. “We're not, you know, making plans at the last minute.”

Roughly three-quarters of registered voters cast an absentee ballot during the April 7 election instead of voting in-person, but not everyone who requested a ballot received one in time to vote.

Map of Wisconsin's 7th congressional district.


“We haven't heard any of that this time,” Magney said. “Again, we've had about 110,000 requests for absentee ballots across the district. There are about 420,000 registered voters in the district, so I would say it's around a quarter of the people have requested absentee ballots.”

During the last election, a court order made an exception for absentee voters allowing ballots postmarked by election day to be counted.

That won't be the case for this election.

“You have to have your ballot back to your clerk's office or the polling place by election day,” Magney said. “It has to be back to the polling place by 8 p.m. If for some reason you're in a larger city and you're returning it to your clerk's office, it's got to be there earlier in the day.”

If you're just receiving your absentee ballot now, you may want to think about dropping it off in-person or having someone take it to the polls for you instead of mailing it.

In rural parts of the state, your ballot, if you put it in the mail, it may go to St. Paul, Minnesota or Milwaukee before it comes back to your clerk's office and so people just need to think about those sorts of things,” Magney said.