Wisconsin early voting statistics show that, as of October 10, 2018, 50,900 Wisconsinites had cast early votes in the November 6, 2018 election, and 121,910 absentee ballots were sent out, according to the Wisconsin Election Commission. That means 42 percent of ballots sent were returned so far.
As a point of comparison, as of October 23, 2014, the last governor’s race, the Commission reported: “As of midday Thursday, a total of 109,275 absentee ballots have been submitted by voters, according to clerks who track them in SVRS. Of those, 59,015 were completed in-person in a clerk’s office.” The Commission does not have 2014 data as of October 10 for a better comparison.
As of October 12, 2016, absentee statistics for the presidential election in Wisconsin showed absentee/early voting was about double what it is now for the midterms (turnout is always expected to be higher in presidential election years.) The stats through October 12, 2016 showed that 172,760 ballots were sent and 103,907 cast, as of that date, Commission data shows. That means about 60% of the ballots mailed out were returned by that date.
Twitter/Vukmir and Baldwin pagesLeah Vukmir and Tammy Baldwin.
In Wisconsin, voters will be able to choose whether to re-elect Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican. His opponent, Tony Evers, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, has been ahead in most recent polls, although Walker was ahead by 1 percent in one of those. There are also Senate, Congressional, and an Attorney General’s race on the ballot. You can see a state-by-state round up of early voting statistics here.
According to the October 10, 2018 report generated by the Wisconsin Election Commission: “Absentee voting reports are generated from the WisVote system, and are based on data entered by Wisconsin’s municipal clerks. The numbers include absentee ballots cast in-person in the clerk’s office (early voting).” Wisconsin law requires photo ID to vote. People who vote absentee are not allowed to change their votes.
The site adds, “Wisconsin does not register voters by political party, and the Elections Commission has no information about the party affiliation or preference of voters who have requested or cast absentee ballots.”
The page breaks down absentee ballots by county into tallies of both sent and returned. You can see early voting/absentee voting deadlines here.
Early voting has grown dramatically in Wisconsin. According to a spreadsheet provided by the Election Commission, in 1988 only 3.03% per votes were absentee. The number first started to climb in 2008, when it reached 21.60%. In 2014, 15.44% of votes were cast early in Wisconsin (the last time Gov. Scott Walker was on the ballot.)
That number exploded in the 2016 presidential election to 27.27%. Presidential election turnout is obviously much higher overall.
For example, 3,004,051 people voted in the 2016 presidential election in Wisconsin. In 2014, the last governor’s race, 2,422,040 people voted. However, more people voted in 2012: 3,080,628.
Here is the county-by-county Wisconsin early voting listing, as of October 10. The first number for each county is the number sent. The second number is the number received.
ADAMS COUNTY
209
99
ASHLAND COUNTY
232
107
BARRON COUNTY
591
235
BAYFIELD COUNTY
324
165
BROWN COUNTY
6445
2803
BUFFALO COUNTY
119
44
BURNETT COUNTY
251
94
CALUMET COUNTY
877
349
CHIPPEWA COUNTY
1140
490
CLARK COUNTY
219
86
COLUMBIA COUNTY
1054
512
CRAWFORD COUNTY
155
67
DANE COUNTY
13696
4642
DODGE COUNTY
1269
568
DOOR COUNTY
732
299
DOUGLAS COUNTY
1148
606
DUNN COUNTY
612
299
EAU CLAIRE COUNTY
1856
598
FLORENCE COUNTY
70
37
FOND DU LAC COUNTY
2102
991
FOREST COUNTY
210
105
GRANT COUNTY
525
188
GREEN COUNTY
480
153
GREEN LAKE COUNTY
263
112
IOWA COUNTY
400
159
IRON COUNTY
192
107
JACKSON COUNTY
130
34
JEFFERSON COUNTY
1134
474
JUNEAU COUNTY
285
66
KENOSHA COUNTY
4652
2297
KEWAUNEE COUNTY
390
190
LA CROSSE COUNTY
2055
663
LAFAYETTE COUNTY
179
59
LANGLADE COUNTY
311
112
LINCOLN COUNTY
478
186
MANITOWOC COUNTY
1705
838
MARATHON COUNTY
3102
1559
MARINETTE COUNTY
709
337
MARQUETTE COUNTY
198
80
MENOMINEE COUNTY
37
30
MILWAUKEE COUNTY
21191
10045
MONROE COUNTY
476
179
OCONTO COUNTY
555
251
ONEIDA COUNTY
1160
512
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY
3446
1354
OZAUKEE COUNTY
2759
1220
PEPIN COUNTY
53
16
PIERCE COUNTY
580
156
POLK COUNTY
521
227
PORTAGE COUNTY
1534
840
PRICE COUNTY
192
85
RACINE COUNTY
4343
1343
RICHLAND COUNTY
71
21
ROCK COUNTY
2588
957
RUSK COUNTY
142
56
ST. CROIX COUNTY
1549
587
SAUK COUNTY
1257
387
SAWYER COUNTY
458
239
SHAWANO COUNTY
496
209
SHEBOYGAN COUNTY
2856
1487
TAYLOR COUNTY
207
85
TREMPEALEAU COUNTY
101
22
VERNON COUNTY
332
79
VILAS COUNTY
819
458
WALWORTH COUNTY
2397
706
WASHBURN COUNTY
319
149
WASHINGTON COUNTY
2979
1213
WAUKESHA COUNTY
11565
4545
WAUPACA COUNTY
801
314
WAUSHARA COUNTY
371
146
WINNEBAGO COUNTY
3685
1451
WOOD COUNTY
1571
721
Total
121910
50900