The Wisconsin Elections Commission has given final approval to send absentee ballot requests to 2.7 million Wisconsin voters. The commission is split 3-3 between Republicans and Democrats, but Wednesday’s vote on a final version of the mailers was unanimous.
The action by commissioners comes as Wisconsin prepares for high rates of absentee voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once voters return their mailers and supporting documents to the commission office in Madison, that information would be entered into a central database. Municipal clerks could then either approve and process, or reject the absentee ballot requests.
Some Republican lawmakers argued the mailings would add a lot of expense and effort to the work of clerks.