As the final days before Election Day ticked down, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites cast their ballots, favoring in-person voting over postal delivery in a sharp pivot from prior election cycles. State tallies released on the morning of October 30 by the Wisconsin Elections Commission showed that statewide absentee returns reached 693,334 votes, outpacing the 2022 pace by roughly 50,000 ballots, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Mail-In Ballots Drop While In-Person Voting Surges Across Wisconsin
The method voters used to return their ballots shifted dramatically. State records show voters returned roughly 300,000 mail-in ballots by October 30, marking a drop of more than 20 percent compared to the 384,000 mail-in votes logged at the same point in 2022. Conversely, in-person absentee voting jumped by more than 50 percent. Voters cast 394,000 in-person ballots this year, up from about 259,000 during the 2022 midterm elections.
Voters bypassed the postal service following recent attempts by President Donald Trump to restrict mail-in voting eligibility. Persistent concerns regarding postal delivery speeds also fueled the shift. Earlier in the year, the WEC asked the U.S. Postal Service to speed up their deliveries of absentee ballots after the majority of clerks reported problems with delays. Delivery failures left marks on past contests. The Fond du Lac County clerk told Wisconsin Public Radio that she received 100 absentee ballots too late to be counted following the April 7 election.
Shifting Balloting Patterns in Democratic and Republican Strongholds
The migration from mailboxes to voting booths occurred across the political spectrum. In the state’s most populous Democratic strongholds, mail-in totals dropped significantly. Milwaukee County saw a mail-in ballot decrease of more than 25 percent compared to 2022, while Dane County experienced a drop exceeding 30 percent. At the same time, in-person absentee voting surged in both areas. Milwaukee County registered a 45 percent increase in in-person votes, and Dane County climbed by nearly 50 percent.
Republican-leaning counties mirrored the trend. Washington and Waukesha counties both recorded mail-in ballot declines of roughly 20 percent. Meanwhile, in-person absentee voting spiked dramatically in the same suburban counties. Washington County recorded a 75 percent increase in in-person absentee votes, and Waukesha County saw growth exceeding 40 percent.
Questions Surrounding Final Mail-In Ballot Processing
With thousands of mail-in ballots still arriving or sitting in local clerk offices as Election Day arrived, election administrators monitored whether late postal sorting would mirror the delays seen in previous local contests. While in-person totals provided a clear early indicator of voter turnout, state election officials continued tracking the final disposition of every postal ballot delivered up to the statutory deadline.
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