The state Government Accountability Board says more than 545,000 absentee ballots have been requested by Wisconsin voters so far, including more than 392,000 in local clerks’ offices.
In-person absentee voting in clerks’ offices finished up this past Friday, although mail-in ballots can still be sent in. Any person voting by mail must have the ballot postmarked by November 6th. It must also be received at the clerk’s office by the end of the business day on the Friday after the election.
The numbers from the GAB include ballot requests received through Monday morning and only reflect those logged using the Statewide Voter Registration System. Only military and overseas ballots are required to be tracked using SVRS, so final numbers may end up being much higher once all absentee ballots are logged and counted on Election Day.
In 2008, 633,610 absentee ballots were cast in the presidential election, which was about 21 percent of the total vote in Wisconsin for that election.
