Low in-person voting offset by absentee ballots, Milwaukee Elections Commission says
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee workers continued to process a record for absentee ballots with masks and disinfectant Wednesday.
“Today we’re just going back and reviewing, making sure everything is in order," Milwaukee Elections Commission Director Neil Albrecht said.
Albrecht said they have received between 60 and 65,000 absentee ballots so far.
That’s compared to just under 18,803 who voted in person Tuesday.
Albrecht said, given the noncompetitive Democratic Primary, that’s actually solid turnout.
“It was almost like the election reversed itself," Albrecht said. "Normally we would see most people, a majority, voting in person at their polling places.”
Marquette Law Poll Director Charles Franklin said it’s too early to tell if the progressive Jill Karofsky or the conservative incumbent Daniel Kelly benefits in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race because of the lack of information on in-person voting in rural areas.
“Whether some of the areas that had low absentee requests actually made up for that on election day with normal or high levels of turnout," Franklin said. "So I'm afraid we are actually going to have to hold off on that.”
The Wisconsin Elections Commission said we won’t know entirely until Monday because ballots can be received until 4 p.m. on the 13th, provided they were postmarked on Tuesday.
“We’re still working with the clerks to understand what exactly they need to do on the 13th, and how that transmission to the county would work, so we anticipate doing some more training with them this week,” Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said.
Wolfe said 4 p.m. Monday will look a lot like 8 p.m. on a regular election night. Results will not just be immediately available at 4:01.