In-person voting in Wisconsin’s two largest cities for the spring election on Tuesday eclipsed turnout figures from the April 2019 election. The Madison municipal clerk’s office tweeted total turnout stood at 87,552, just over 50 percent of registered voters. There were 65,997 voters who returned absentee ballots, while in-person turnout was at 21,555.
Unofficial @CityofMadison turnout numbers (with additional absentees pending until 4/13): 87,552 ballots. 50.3%
Absentees counted today: 61,279
April 2016 turnout: 66%#MadisonVotes2020 #MadisonWI
— Madison WI Clerk (@MadisonWIClerk) April 8, 2020
The Milwaukee Elections Commission reported in-person turnout of 18,803 and 56,489 absentee ballots as of 8:20 p.m. Tuesday.
Absentee ballots returned in Wisconsin now top 1 million. The latest (as of Wednesday morning) numbers for the spring election show 1,287,827 absentee ballots requested, 1,275,177 sent out and 1,003,422 returned. That last number will continue to grow until Monday, when all ballots need to be counted.
Long lines greeted voters in places like Milwaukee, Waukesha and Green Bay, where the last vote in the state appears to have been cast at the polling place at West High School. That was at 12:30. Some voters reported waiting in line for four hours.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos volunteered at a drive up polling place in his district on Tuesday. But the Burlington Republican has drawn derision for telling a reporter it was “incredibly safe to go out,” while dressed in a surgical mask, gloves and a gown.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wore protective gear as a volunteer poll worker, said ‘you are incredibly safe to go out.’ via @journalsentinel https://t.co/9lSrochdbD
— The Wheeler Report (@WheelerReports) April 8, 2020
Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes used an expletive to describe Tuesday’s election, in a post to Twitter. Barnes tweeted “Welcome to the blank-Show” ahead of the day’s in-person voting.
Barnes then blamed Republicans for any problems. Republicans have said Governor Tony Evers’ indecesiveness and decisions by local election managers to close polling places – were to blame for any Election Day problems.
On the ballot were the Democratic presidential preference primary, a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and hundreds of local elected offices. Results will not be known until all absentee ballots are tallied on Monday. That’s due an order issued last week by a U.S. District Court judge.