How an Absentee Ballot Moves Through Wisconsin's Election System | Choose

Mail-in voting has had a bad reputation in past elections, drawing unfounded allegations of fraud and election conspiracy from mostly Republican critics. While no method is perfect, election officials say the state's system is secure and straightforward.

Madison Deputy Clerk Jim Verbick told Cap Times the process of an absentee ballot from start to finish, starting with a Wisconsin voter's request.

Election officials like Verbick track the status of an absentee ballot from the start. Wisconsin voters can request a ballot online as long as they have a valid photo ID, which includes a Wisconsin driver's license, Wisconsin state ID card, military ID card, passport or tribal ID card.

“The first time they request an absentee ballot, they must provide a picture of a photo ID that is acceptable as a voter ID, and we must verify that to make sure it is an acceptable form of identification,” Verbick said.

If the ID is approved, the clerk's office will mail a ballot to the voter the next business day. Once voters receive their ballots in the mail, they must fill them out and sign them in front of a witness. The witness must then provide their information and sign.

When an absentee ballot is returned to the clerk's office – through a drop box, by mail or in person – local election officials scan the envelope to mark that the ballot has been received and to show that the voter has cast their vote and do so, no other person should be issued and voting in person is not permitted.

“If for some reason the voter missed the signature or the witness missed a signature or the witness address is missing or incomplete, we would follow the same record-keeping process except we would mark it as not returned,” Verbick said.

At that point, the ballot would be returned to the voter along with a letter outlining what needs to be fixed.

Election workers sort the valid ballot papers by electoral district and then – shortly before election day – by the voters' last names.

“That way, when they enter absentees in the poll book on election day, they’re looking at all the ‘S’s’ at once and all the ‘T’s at once,” Verbick said.

Madison does not conduct central counts. Each batch of sorted mail-in ballots is delivered to each polling location along with the home address on the ballot.

“We send all of our mail-in ballots to individual polling locations to be opened and counted,” Verbick said.

Voters can track the status of their absentee ballot at myvote.wi.gov.

What happens on election day?

While some states allow early counting of mail-in ballots, Wisconsin law does not allow envelopes for mail-in ballots to be opened until the morning of Election Day. At that point, poll workers can begin entering them into ballot counting machines.

The speed of this process may depend on a number of factors, including how much free time poll workers have to count mail-in ballots while assisting voters in the field.

Marge Bostlemann, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, says voting machines also play a role.

“It really all depends on how quickly the ballots can be entered and how quickly the machine reads them,” Bostlemann told reporters during an Oct. 25 press conference on election integrity.

In 2020, Milwaukee County was among the last to report vote counts due to delays in counting ballots. Bostlemann noted that Milwaukee County has new machines this year that count ballots more quickly.

What stops people from voting twice?

While Republicans are making the case for their base to participate in early voting this election – with some shifting their stance in favor of mail-in voting – the practice has been the source of extensive and unfounded allegations of fraud in the past.

But Madison's Verbick says there are several controls built into the system to ensure it's working properly.

For example, in the Election Day poll book, a watermark appears next to a voter's name indicating whether that voter was given a mail-in ballot and whether the voter returned the ballot.

In the event that a voter has been given a ballot but not yet returned, the poll worker will ask the voter whether they have already cast a mail-in ballot. If a voter lies and tries to cast two ballots, only one will be counted, Verbick confirmed.

“If they had voted in person, we wouldn’t even open the mail-in ballot they sent us,” he said. “And then if we noted that the mail-in ballot was checked in, we would not give them a ballot if they came to vote in person after the mail-in vote.”

How should you return your ballot?

Monday, Oct. 28, was the last day Verbick recommended sending an absentee ballot in the mail in hopes it would reach officials in time to be counted on Election Day.

“If you are local, I would strongly encourage you to drop off your absentee ballot either at one of our ballot drop boxes or at one of our on-site absentee voting locations, or if it is Election Day, drop it off at your polling place,” Verbick said.

Polling stations will be open until 8 p.m. on November 5th. Further information on how, when and where to vote can be found here.