By SCOTT BAUER
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 97,000 people in Wisconsin voted absentee in person on the first day they could, leading to long waits at some polling places made worse by a computer system overwhelmed that clerks use to process ballots.
Republicans and Democrats have been pushing voters to vote early, leading to a surge and reports of people waiting in line for hours at clerks’ offices and other polling places across the country. state Tuesday.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission reported Wednesday that 97,436 people voted in person Tuesday. This is an increase from the 79,774 people who voted on the opening day of in-person voting in 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that year, the number of in-person votes decreased while postal voting was higher.
As of Wednesday, 475,460 absentee ballots had been returned, including those sent by mail and cast in person. This represents less than half of the million people who were returned four years ago.
There are more than 3.5 million registered voters in Wisconsin, but voters can register and vote on Election Day.
The larger-than-expected influx of voters Tuesday caused a slowdown in the WisVote system that some workers use to print a label placed on the outside of an in-person mail-in ballot, said the election commission, which noted that the staff worked quickly. to increase system capacity.
The problem persisted Wednesday and appears to be affecting state systems unrelated to elections as well, the commission said.
“High levels of in-person mail-in voting appear to be making the problem even worse,” it says.
Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chairwoman of the commission, put a positive spin on the delay, calling the high turnout that led to the problem “tremendous.”
“A lot of people came,” Jacobs said. “The system slowed down, it never went all the way down, but it did slow down a little bit, we are confident it won’t happen again.”
Scott McDonell, the Dane County clerk, said he was not surprised by the high level of first-day voters given that it has also happened in other states this year.
Wisconsin is one of the few battleground states where the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump could go one way or the other. This resulted in massive spending by both sides in the state, encouragement to vote early, and numerous visits by candidates and their surrogates.
“These were all voters who had made up their minds for a while,” McDonell said. “I think statewide we saw more Republicans voting early, which is a good thing. There should be no difference in how people vote.”
Wisconsin voters don’t register by party, so it’s impossible to know how many Republicans and Democrats have returned their ballots so far.
McDonell predicted that turnout would be high for a few days, then slow down. He recommended voters wait a few days to vote in person.
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