by Jon Styf
Wisconsin has 78 drop boxes currently in use throughout the state as opposed to 500 in the 2020 presidential election, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Those are the communities that have registered the drop boxes with the state, according to Wisconsin Administrator of Wisconsin Elections Commission Meagan Wolfe.
That drop box total includes 14 in the city of Milwaukee, 14 in Madison and seven in Racine with a full list available on the state’s election site.
Drop boxes have become a hot topic in the state after this election cycle with following a Wisconsin state Supreme Court ruling allowing their use but not requiring it.
Previously, the court had blocked the use of ballot drop boxes after the 2020 presidential election.
“Voters have a lot of choices to make and I think that we have a lot of really great, secure options here in the state of Wisconsin,” Administrator of Wisconsin Elections Commission Meagan Wolfe said Wednesday.
Wednesday was the final day to register to vote by mail or online but voters can still register at a municipal clerk’s office until 5 p.m. on Nov. 1 or register at a polling place on election day, Nov. 5.
As of Wednesday, Wisconsin has had 267,524 absentee ballots returned of the 564,095 that have been mailed out and 573,750 that have been requested.
That compares to the same point in 2020, when 700,000 had been returned and 1.3 million had been requested. Ultimately, 2 million voters voted with absentee ballots in 2020 in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting on Oct. 22, voters can cast an in-person absentee ballot at clerk’s offices in municipalities.
The largest number of returned ballots have come in Dane County with 39,495 of the 80,853 ballots being returned while Milwaukee has seen 38,020 of the 88,118 requested ballots returned.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Ballot Drop Box” by CliffordSnow. CC4.0.
