Wisconsin election officials report 40% jump in early voting

The Wisconsin Elections Commission reported that the number of ballots cast over the first three full days in early in-person absentee voting before the 2024 election is nearly 40% higher than in 2020.

Associated Press

October 28, 2024

Multiple people stand in front of collapsible three-sided privacy screens with Vote printed on the side set on top of folding tables while other people stand and sit in other locations in a room with a speaker mounted on a tripod, low pile carpet, marble walls and fluorescent lights, as seen from outside through large plate-glass windows with a printed political sign showing an arrow, a QR code and the words Vote Early Here standing at the base of one window.

Voters cast their ballots at the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building during the first day of Wisconsin's in-person absentee voting on Oct. 22, 2024, in Milwaukee. (Credit: AP Photo / Morry Gash)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin elections officials are reporting a nearly 40% increase in early in-person absentee voting over 2020.

Early in-person absentee voting began Oct. 22 in the battleground state. The Wisconsin Elections Commission announced that as of the morning of Friday, Oct. 25, 292,702 people had voted early in-person compared with 209,665 as of the morning of Friday, Oct. 23, 2020.

The total number of absentee ballots requested stood at 921,832, with 715,395 returned by mail or in-person early voters.

Voters cast about 640,100 total absentee ballots in 2008; 665,340 absentee ballots in 2012; 824,736 absentee ballots in 2016; and about 1.9 million absentee ballots in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early in-person absentee voting continues through Sunday, Nov. 3. All absentee ballots must be received by local clerks by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5, to count.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been encouraging conservatives to vote early after a surge of early Democratic voting in 2020.