Nearly 100K ballots cast on Wisconsin’s first day of in-person early voting

Nearly 100,000 Wisconsinites cast early ballots on the first day of in-person absentee voting, which caused long lines and lags in the state’s voting software.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission reported a total of 97,436 people cast in-person absentee ballots Tuesday. During the first day of early in-person voting in the 2020 election, there were 79,774 ballots cast.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs said the turnout was “significantly larger” than any other first day of early absentee voting the agency has recorded.

“And in fact, in past years, the first day of early absentee was not the busiest day,” Jacobs told WPR on Wednesday. “Usually it fell on some of the weekends. So, forecasting what sort of turnout we’re going to have on the first day of early absentee, we certainly did not forecast this many voters choosing yesterday.”

Long lines were reported Tuesday at polling places in cities like Milwaukee and Madison. As they waited, representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties held events encouraging their supporters to vote early.

Former President Barack Obama was in Madison with vice presidential nominee Tim Walz urging Democrats to vote ahead of the upcoming presidential election. At the same time, former President Donald Trump’s campaign held a virtual press conference encouraging the GOP faithful to “bank” their early votes in order to avoid long lines and potential snow storms on Nov. 5.

The early vote push continued Wednesday, with rapper and University of Wisconsin-Madison alum Yung Gravy seen leading a crowd of students toward the campus’ Memorial Union to cast in-person absentee ballots in a video posted by Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler.

The WEC cited the surge of in-person absentee turnout as a factor that caused the state’s WisVote computer system to slow down. Local clerks use WisVote for a variety of election duties, including printing labels that go on absentee ballot envelopes. A Wisconsin Elections Commission statement Tuesday afternoon said clerks can write the label information on the ballots manually and voting should not be affected.

Jacobs said the agency asked the Wisconsin Department of Enterprise Technology to add additional server space for WisVote, which appeared to resolve the issue Wednesday morning. But she said the slowdown happened again and IT staff found the issue was with “the underlying structure upon which the WisVote system is based,” and other non-election computer systems are also affected.

“So, those folks have a very large team currently working with the WEC staff, the DET staff, all trying to get this resolved as quickly as possible,” Jacobs said.

While lines at the Milwaukee Election Commission’s early voting site on Capitol Drive were shorter Wednesday, Gregory and Denise Johnson still had to wait their turn. They told WPR they tried to vote Tuesday but the lines were too long. Still, Denise Johnson was glad to see the crowd. 

“To see the turnout and the enthusiasm, it feels really good to see it and to be a part of it,” Denise Johnson said.

Tuesday’s in-person absentee totals represent a 22 percent increase over the totals from the first day of in-person absentee voting in the 2020 presidential election. However, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the total of all absentee ballots cast in-person and by mail was significantly higher that year. All told, 1,027,585 absentee ballots were reported on Oct. 20, 2020. As of Tuesday, this year’s combined total was 475,460.

On the first day of early voting in 2022, residents turned in 33,644 in-person absentee ballots. Turnout during mid-term elections is typically much lower than it is in presidential election years.

Editor’s Note: Evan Casey contributed to this report.