GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Clerks are once again able to print absentee ballots, following two, recent court rulings. They don’t have a ton of time though. Absentee ballots have to be in the mail and headed to everyone who has already requested one, by Thursday.
“We’re right up against those deadlines and our clerks are working to get all those ballots out,” said Meagan Wolfe of Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Clerks have until Thursday to start sending ballots out. And until Saturday to send to military overseas. The Wisconsin Elections Commission already has more than one million ballot requests to fill.
“County Clerks and township clerks that do their work, they’re true heroes. It’s very difficult as we’ve seen an increase of people wanting to vote by mail,” Gov. Tony Evers during Tuesday’s DHS briefing.
“We have a lot more absentee ballots requested at this point than we have in any other previous election,” said Wolfe.
The ballot was not finalized until a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling Monday. Justices decided to keep the Green Party off the ballot. Rapper Kanye West was also kept off the ballot by a Brown County judge, giving clerks the green light to keep printing.
“The Supreme Court removed that road block to let them do their job,” said Evers.
The Wisconsin Election Commission is reminding voters to turn those ballots back in as soon as possible. To avoid unexpected problems.
“Mail can take up to a week on each leg of the journey and sometimes things can go wrong on the voters side,” said Wolfe, “sometimes they go wrong in the mailing system so I think the more time a voter has, the more time there is to fix an issue.”
While deadlines are approaching to get the ballots out, it’s not too late to apply for one.
“The deadline for clerks to start mailing ballots to voters with requests on file,” said Wolfe, “this doesn’t shut the door on absentee requests.”
Voters have until the Thursday before Election Day to request a ballot by mail.
The elections commission says they have not heard from any Clerks who are concerned about meeting their deadlines.
