MILWAUKEE — With the Nov. 5 election right around the corner, the Badger State has already recorded in-person absentee voting that’s up 40% from the 2020 election, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. 

What You Need To Know

  • Wisconsin Elections Commission reports more than 55,000 absentee ballots have been returned in the City of Milwaukee

  • In Milwaukee County, more than 105,000 absentee ballots have been returned 

  • Milwaukee County Election Director Michelle Hawley said the current voter participation is at 24%
 

Milwaukee County Election Director Michelle Hawley said as of Monday morning, more than 105,000 absentee ballots have been returned in the county.

Hawley said more than 55,000 have been returned in the City of Milwaukee. 

“In Milwaukee County, we have about 518,096 registered voters,” said Hawley. “With 125,982 ballots returned to be counted, we’re already at about 24% turnout for this election.”

In 2020, Milwaukee County had 83% voter turnout. She said she is hopeful the numbers for this election are close to that. 

“That would be a wonderful number to see, to know voters are taking advantage of their constitutional right to vote and hopefully, we’ve done a good job at putting out information out about voting and doing registration drives and promoting the process,” said Hawley. 

All Milwaukee County municipalities will have early in-person absentee voting up until Friday except for Milwaukee County, which will still have it on Saturday and Sunday. 

“Please know that these ballots can’t be opened and processed until 7 o’clock on Election Day,” said Hawley. “In other states, they might have the opportunity to open ballots and start opening them prior to Election Day. State law prohibits clerks from doing that in Wisconsin.” 

While voting ends at 8 p.m. on Election Night, Hawley said counting ballots will take time. 

“The poll workers will close the polls and print the results tapes,” said Hawley. “After their result tapes are printed, the results are going to be modemed to us here at the county. We will verify of each and every reporting unit.” 

Hawley said out of the nine municipalities in Milwaukee County, West Allis, Wauwatosa and the city of Milwaukee use a higher capacity tabulating machine.

She said that’s why those communities don’t have a modem capability. 

“After they are done processing their absentee ballots, they will process their reports and they will extract that data so the results and the total ballots cast from each machine on an encrypted thumb drive,” said Hawley. “That thumb drive then will be brought over to the county.” 

She said once election workers begin processing ballots, the results will begin populating online for the public to see. 

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