State officials detail how votes will be processed in Wisconsin

MADISON, WI– With days away until Election Day, thousands of voters have already submitted their absentee mail-in ballot or have already voted with in-person early voting. Regardless whether you submitted your ballot via absentee or on Election Day, all those votes will be counted.

But how do election officials filter all those ballots by wards and municipalities? Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator, Megan Wolfe says it all comes down to the local level. In a virtual press meeting that took place on Friday, November 1st, Wolfe explained the process to members of the press.

“Wisconsin state law says as municipalities finish their tabulation, they report their unofficial results to their county clerk; and the county clerk posts those unofficial results to their website,” said Wolfe.

Those municipalities will count Election Day ballots first, before opening the submitted absentee ballots and adding those results to the unofficial results. However, all municipalities are not alike in processing absentee ballots according to Wolfe.

“There are about 35 municipalities that utilize what’s called central count for counting their absentee ballots.” Wolfe said. “All the absentees are counted in a central location. Until all those absentee votes are counted for, they will then be added to the municipality and ward where the absentee voter resides.”

When all the county clerks in Wisconsin have submitted their results, the Wisconsin Elections Commission will then announce which candidate has earned Wisconsin’s electoral votes.

If for some reason, the margin of error is too close to count, the WEC will have plans in place for a recount.

“Recounts often happen over Thanksgiving and deer hunting season,” said Wolfe. “And so a lot of times clerks can struggle if they’re not anticipating a recount to staff those and so we want to make sure that everybody is ready and can get the staff they need to be ready in the event if we have one.”

Wolfe also wants to remind people that if they haven’t yet registered to vote for this year’s election, they cannot register on the Sunday or Monday before Election Day, but they can register to vote when the show up to their polling place during Election Day.

“People do need to bring some form of proof on where they live such as a utility bill or a bank statement, something with proof of their current address,” said Wolfe. “And all Wisconsin voters are going to have to show an acceptable photo ID before voting.”

Polls open at 7A.M. on Election Day and close at 8P.M.