GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – Wisconsin voters continue to endure long waits at polling places across the state on the third day of in-person absenteeism.
Many are wondering what the circumstances are that are creating this high turnout, which is different from the last election.
Early voting numbers in 2020 soared as Americans voted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and those numbers appear to be rising again.
Political expert and Lawrence University professor Jerald Podair says nearly half a million Wisconsin residents have already voted, either through in-person early voting or mail-in ballots.
He explains to us that the high turnout of absentee voters is due to the fact that the Republicans pushed hard for early voting.
“Four years ago, their own candidate, Donald Trump, encouraged them not to participate, which I think was a mistake. This year, Republicans are not making that mistake,” Podair said.
Podair believes the high turnout bodes well for Republicans, but it doesn’t necessarily mean more votes will lean toward Republicans in this election. He says many voters have already decided who they will vote for.
“Very rarely have I seen in a presidential election so much polarization and visceral dislike and anger directed at any one candidate,” Podair said.
High turnout also causes delays in printing labels when voting by mail in person. Appleton voters tell us they were shocked by the long waits.
“The lines are crazy. I think it probably won’t be a problem on November 5,” Angie Luck said.
“We were aware that there were queues, but it was a little longer than expected. An hour is a long time, but we’ll wait an hour,” Dennis Clauss said.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) released a statement Thursday saying:
The Wisconsin Elections Commission received reports Thursday morning from some local election officials who continued to experience delays affecting the system they use to print absentee certificate envelope labels.
The continued delays in printing times follow a system update implemented Wednesday evening in an attempt to resolve the problem. WEC staff continue to work alongside state partners to conduct further analysis to identify the root cause and ultimately improve label printing time.
The delays only affected label printing times. All other system functions used by clerks to print are operating optimally. At this time, there is no reason to believe that this affects other areas of election administration or state government, nor is there any reason to believe that delays printing losses were caused by a cyber attack.
Printing a label is not required for in-person absentee voting, but it is certainly an added efficiency for hard-working local election officials. On Wednesday evening, the WEC sent a communication to clerks recommending that if they continue to experience delays in printing the labels for absence certificate envelopes on Thursday, they should switch to in-person handwriting of information on absentees on the outside of the absence certificate envelope until the printing delays are reached. are resolved. This was the normal process before 2020.
You can see a photo of the certificate envelope (EL-122 Standard Absentee Ballot Certificate) at the following link: https://elections.wi.gov/wec-form/official-absentee-ballot-applicationcertification. Election officials can handwrite the information in the section titled “Step 1.”
Label printing is a newer and optional efficiency, but it is not essential to administering in-person absentee voting. City clerks continue to report high levels of in-person absentee voting. No voter should be turned away due to delays in printing labels. WEC thanks local elections officials for their patience and professionalism as agency staff continue to work to improve the speed of label printing.
WEC plans to provide another update once we know more.
You can view the postal voting certificate here.
The WEC says the new label printing system that added time to the early voting process is not necessary for voting by mail, but it adds to the efficiency of local election officials.
Copyright 2024 WBAY. All rights reserved.