MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin's spring primary election is coming up on Feb. 15, with early voting now underway.
Here's what you need to know about voting in the spring primary if there's a contest where you live.
Polls will be open on Feb. 15 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Early voting started on Feb. 1 and will run through Feb. 11.
If you want to apply for an absentee ballot, applications must be received by no later than 5 p.m. on Feb. 10.
Remember, if you missed the deadline to register to vote online or by mail (Jan. 26), you can still register at your polling location on election day so long as you have lived at your current address at least 28 days before the election.
Depending on where you live, there are mostly local-level races on the ballot, as is the case in Green Bay, Eau Claire and La Crosse. However, in Milwaukee, there will be a mayoral primary. Former Mayor Tom Barrett vacated the position to serve as the ambassador to Luxembourg.
Madison will not have a spring primary because no office on the ballot has enough candidates to require a primary.
Yes, absentee ballot drop boxes will be allowed for this primary election. If you do not plan on going to your clerk's office to vote early or to the polls on election day, you can request a ballot by mail and you can drop it off in a drop box if your community uses them.
The legal battle over the use of such drop boxes, however, is far from over. Recently, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided it was too close to the election to change the rules, but the justices do plan to rule in the coming weeks, maybe even months, as to whether those boxes can be used in future elections.
Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, an elected Democrat, is concerned about restricting the use of drop boxes.
“With the pandemic, and also with the slowdowns with the postal service, I think all of us have seen how mail is not as quick as it used to be,” McDonell said. “In Wisconsin, if you get your ballot in a day late, even if it's postmarked, it doesn't count. And so that's a little different than other places, so that why drop boxes are more important because the voter feels one: they're safe from contracting a disease, and then two: they know if it got there in time.”
McDonell said in 2020, about 80 percent of voters in Dane County voted by absentee mail amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The easiest explanation is there is no law guiding how they can be used.
Back in March 2020, when the pandemic fired up, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) issued guidance allowing drop boxes to be used in multiple spots. Since then, Republican lawmakers on the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) took action to force the commission to create an emergency rule or stop issuing guidance allowing them.
The commission, which is made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, has been pretty split over what to do, especially with the Wisconsin Supreme Court now involved.
“It is now clear that after the deadline of Feb. 9, the legislature must rapidly commence litigation to end the unlawful actions of WEC and force them to comply with the constitutional authority of the legislature,” State Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, who chairs JCRAR said.