(The Center Square) – Thursday should be a busy day for Wisconsin’s local election managers, but the reality is that there have already been several busy days.
Thursday is the state-mandated deadline for local clerks to get the first batch of absentee ballots for the November election in the mail.
"Municipal clerks can begin mailing absentee ballots once official ballots are received and have until Sept. 17, 2026 to send ballots to all voters with a request on file by that day. Requests received after Sept. 17, 2026 must be fulfilled within one business day," the Elections Commission wrote to clerks.
Voters can continue to request mail-in ballots up until the end of October.
All mail-in ballots in Wisconsin must be back at the local clerk's office by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Any ballots that arrive after that will not be counted.
Wisconsin clerks have been busy with mail-in ballots.
Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said local clerks have already put nearly 200,000 ballots in the mail.
"So, 194,000 absentee ballots have already been sent to voters who requested them," Wolfe said in an Elections Commission video earlier this week. "Of those, 1,600 have already been returned."
That number, 194,000 ballots, is about 7% of the 2.6 million votes cast in Wisconsin's 2022 race for governor. And it is expected to grow.
Wolfe, however, offered a warning for would-be absentee voters in the state.
"This is a good time to remind voters that if you are going to vote absentee by mail, please make sure to return your ballot as soon as possible," Wolfe added in her video. "If you are going to be returning your ballot by mail, please do so at least two weeks before the election."
Many Wisconsin clerks say they saw late-arriving ballots in both the spring election and the August primary. The Elections Commission said about 5% of mail-in ballots arrived late and were not counted.
Wisconsin Election Commission member Ann Jacobs noted the uptick in early voting requests. She took to X on Wednesday to ask why.
"Is [the] huge jump in requested ballots a response to pent-up demand from voters waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the USPS rule? Or is there a big uptick in ballot requests for other reasons? We will soon see which it is!" she wrote.