MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 97,000 people in Wisconsin cast absentee ballots in person on the first day they could, leading to long waits at some polling sites that were made worse by an overwhelmed computer system that clerks use to process ballots.
Republicans and Democrats have been pushing voters to cast ballots early, leading to the surge and reports of people waiting in line for hours at clerks’ offices and other polling places around the state Tuesday.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission reported Wednesday that 97,436 people voted in-person on Tuesday. That is up from 79,774 who cast ballots on opening day of in-person voting in 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that year, in-person voting numbers were down while absentee voting by mail was higher.
As of Wednesday, 475,460 absentee ballots had been returned, including those sent by mail and cast in person. That is less than half of the more than 1 million that had been returned by that point four years ago.
There are more than 3.5 million registered voters in Wisconsin, but voters can register and vote on Election Day.