Voting rights activists and others gather at the Midtown Center in Milwaukee on the first day of early voting in July 2022. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

The first day of in-person early voting in Wisconsin saw 97,436 people cast ballots for the Nov. 5 election. So many people voted on Tuesday that it caused a slowdown of the state election software system, leading to long lines in some places. 

The number of ballots cast on the opening day of early voting far surpassed other recent elections. In the 2022 midterm election, which had gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races on the ballot, 33,644 people cast ballots on the first day of early voting. In the 2020 presidential election 79,774 people showed up on the first day of early voting. 

Despite Tuesday’s high turnout, the popularity of absentee voting in general still lags behind the 2020 presidential election when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many voters to vote remotely. 

After more than four years of Republicans and Donald Trump attacking the voting system and making accusations that any voting methods other than  going to the polls on Election Day are vulnerable to fraud, the GOP nonetheless encouraged Republicans this year to vote early. 

Democrats have also been encouraging people to vote early. On Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee announced an ad campaign directed at students on 30 college campuses across the country, including UW-Madison, touting early voting. The city of Madison has six early voting locations across the campuses of UW-Madison, Edgewood College and Madison College. 

The traditionally Republican-voting Waukesha County had 11,397 people cast their ballots on Tuesday. Despite its status as a GOP stronghold, the county’s leftward drift has played a major role in Democratic wins in statewide elections in recent years. 

Dane and Milwaukee counties, the biggest Democratic areas in Wisconsin, saw the most early votes on Tuesday, with 11,862 Dane County residents casting their ballots and 12,282 Milwaukee County voters casting theirs. 

In a news release on Tuesday afternoon, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) said the higher than expected turnout for the first day of early voting used up the capacity of the state’s WisVote system, which some municipal clerks use to print a label that is placed on the outside of in-person absentee certificate envelopes. 

“Today’s system lag was purely related to demands on the WisVote system due to high turnout,” the release stated. “This should not prevent any voter’s ability to vote in-person absentee today. WEC staff worked quickly to increase system capacity to ensure that clerks can continue to facilitate in-person absentee voting efficiently.” 

WEC Chair Ann Jacobs said that the agency has worked with the state’s Department of Enterprise Technology to boost the capacity of the WisVote system. 

“So many of you voted that you overloaded our computer systems!  Amazing! We worked with Dept. of Enterprise Technology and have created more server space so all should be running smoothly now,” she wrote. “We apologize for underestimating the incredible enthusiasm you all have for voting. This is unheard of turnout for the first day of in-person absentee voting!! All is well in our WisVote system and you should be able to vote without a problem.”

Early in-person absentee voting is open from now until the Sunday before the election (though some communities end early voting the Saturday before). Hours and locations are set by local municipal clerks. Voters can find how to vote early in their communities at MyVote.WI.Gov

Voting carrels set up at Madison's Hawthorne Library on Election Day 2022. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Early in-person voting for the November election opens Tuesday for Wisconsin voters. Hours and locations for casting an early vote are set locally by municipal clerks. You can check the hours and locations in your area at MyVote.wi.gov.

Officially known as in-person absentee voting, Wisconsin’s early voting allows a voter to request and cast an absentee ballot at a polling location during the two weeks before an election. The in-person absentee process includes checks of a person’s voter registration and identity. Because absentee voting in Wisconsin requires a witness to sign the ballot envelope, a municipal clerk staff member working at the early voting site serves as the witness. The ballots, like absentees sent through the mail or returned to drop boxes, aren’t processed and tabulated until polls open on Election Day. 

The deadline to register to vote online or by mail has already passed, but people can still register in-person at their municipal clerk’s office. Wisconsin also has same-day voter registration that allows people to register to vote at the polls on Election Day. Wisconsin requires voters to show a photo ID to register and vote. Acceptable IDs include driver’s licenses, Department of Transportation-issued identification cards, student IDs from Wisconsin universities, passports and military ID cards. 

While in-person absentee voting opens this week, voters have already been receiving and returning absentee ballots through the mail for weeks. 

As of Friday, the most recent data available from the Wisconsin Elections Commission shows that 593,550 voters have requested absentee ballots and 305,344 of those ballots have already been returned. Those totals are a far cry from the 2020 presidential election when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many voters to the absentee process. By the Friday before early voting opened in 2020, 1,395,272 absentee ballots had already been requested and 821,300 had been returned. 

In the months ahead of Election Day, voting rights advocates and election officials have fretted about the speed of the U.S. Postal Service and its ability to deliver absentee ballots fast enough. For most voters, the legal deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 31, however officials warn that isn’t enough time for the ballot to arrive, be filled out and returned by the close of polls at 8 p.m. on Election Day. Voters worried about mail times can return ballots to drop boxes (in communities that are using them), to their municipal clerk’s office or their designated polling place on Election Day.