GREEN BAY, WI (WLUK) — Thousands of ballots have already been cast in this year’s presidential election in Wisconsin, so much so that election officials were taken by surprise.
“I think clerks were, you know, a little surprised by turnout. If you look at the numbers historically, election officials, for our preparation and planning, a lot of times we have to look to history, right? What was the voting behavior like? Did people utilize by mail, in person absentee? Did they vote at the polls on election day?” says Meagan Wolfe,the Wisconsin Elections Commissions Administrator.
Statewide officials say in-person absentee voting is ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Wolfe says in the first three days of in-person absentee, numbers were almost 40% ahead of the same time frame for the same method of voting in 2020, although that number has since slowed slightly.
Wolfe speculates that awareness surrounding these voting methods has increased in recent years, possibly leading to the continued spike.
As of Friday morning, statewide, 645,190 mail-in absentee ballots have been requested, and 537,645 have been returned.
A total of 80,183 in-person absentee ballots have also been returned.
In Green Bay, of the 8,975 in-person absentee ballot applications received since October 23, 8,510 have cast their ballots.
Wolfe adds that this weekend will likely change the numbers, as the Friday before the election in 2020 was the busiest day for in-person absentee voting across the state.
In-person absentee voting in Green Bay was busiest on October 25 and 29, although voting is still open Friday night through 8 p.m.
As of now, there are 258,000 more in-person absentee ballots cast compared to the same time frame in the 2020 election, which is a 48% increase.
By now, the time has passed for voters to mail in their ballots, as they will not arrive by 8 p.m. on election night.
Those who still need to return their ballots should deposit them into your municipality’s drop box, if they are utilizing one, of bring it to your clerk’s office before 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.
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