GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – With less than three weeks until the November election, the Wisconsin Elections Commission is reassuring voters it has plans in place to ensure a safe and fair election.
Wednesday marked the last day Wisconsin voters could register to vote through the mail or via email, but according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission there are other opportunities to make sure you can vote on November 5th.
“After today you can still, for the next few weeks, register to vote in your municipal clerks office and of course you can register at the polls, same day on Election Day,” said Meagan Wolfe the administrator of the WEC.
Heading into Election Day, it’s all hands on deck for the 1850 municipal clerks and 72 county clerks statewide. More than 562,000 absentee ballots have been requested across the state, with nearly 240,000 of them already returned.
“For comparison, at this point in 2020 there were more than 1.3 million absentee requests that have been filed with municipal clerks and more than 700,000 absentee ballots that had already been returned. There were ultimately 2,000,000 ballots that were cast in the 2020 election,” said Wolfe.
Even though absentee voting trends are looking more like pre-2020 levels, in-person absentee voting begins next week, so the numbers will probably grow.
The number of absentee ballots that will be added to the respective wards on November 5th won’t be a surprise, as each jurisdiction is required to post the number of outstanding ballots that they have on Election Day.
Wolfe added, “We all know exactly how many absentee ballots can be added to the totals for Milwaukee or Green Bay or other jurisdictions that have central count so that number is no surprise to anyone. We all know what that number is, what the realm of possibility is in terms of absentees that can be added to the totals.”
It’s a process Wolfe says is and will continue to be transparent as election officials strive for not only accuracy but also integrity.
“Election officials are not willing to sacrifice accuracy to be faster with results so it will take as long as it takes to get it right and every step of that process. Every ballots that’s counted will be counted in the public eye so there’s really no secret over what’s happening or why something is taking as long as it is,” said Wolfe.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission encourages voters to visit “My Vote Wisconsin” for specific information on absentee voting, their polling location, or any other election-related questions.
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