Early voting in Wisconsin in 2024 is up nearly 50% compared to 2020

GREEN BAY (WLUK) — Thousands of ballots have already been cast in this year's presidential election in Wisconsin, leaving poll workers surprised.

“I think the poll workers were a little surprised by the turnout. When you look at the numbers historically, we often have to look to history when preparing and planning for election officials, right? What was the voting behavior like? Did people vote by mail or in person on Election Day? says Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

And as we have seen over the last five years, this historical data has not been helpful for planning. Everything still went very smoothly, but I think our local poll workers were surprised at how many people weren't there.

In Green Bay, early voting will continue throughout the weekend, from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday and 9 a.m. to noon on Sunday.

But already, statewide officials say in-person mail-in voting will happen before the 2020 presidential election.

Wolfe said numbers in the first three days of in-person absenteeism were nearly 40% higher than the same time frame for the same voting method in 2020, although that number has slowed slightly since then.

Wolfe suspects that awareness of these voting methods has increased in recent years, which may have led to a continued increase.

As of Friday morning, 645,190 mail-in ballots had been requested statewide and 537,645 had been returned.

In addition, a total of 80,183 mail-in ballots were returned.

In Green Bay, of the 8,975 absentee ballot applications received since Oct. 23, 8,510 have cast a ballot.

Wolfe adds that the numbers are likely to change this weekend, as the Friday before the election was the busiest day for in-person absentee voting statewide in 2020.

In-person absentee voting in Green Bay was busiest on Oct. 25 and 29, although voting is still open Friday night until 8 p.m

There are currently 258,000 more in-person mail-in ballots cast compared to the same period in the 2020 election, an increase of 48%.

It is now no longer necessary for voters to send in their ballots by mail, as they will not arrive at 8 p.m. on election night.

Those who still need to return their ballots should drop them in your county mailbox (if you use one) or drop them off at your clerk's office before November 5th at 8:00 p.m.

Anyone who still wants to register to vote will have to wait until election day, as voters cannot register on the Saturday, Sunday or Monday before the election. However, you can register to vote at the polls on Tuesday as long as you bring proof of address.