Wisconsin Elections Commission: 3.1M people to cast ballots on Election Day
MADISON -- The Wisconsin Elections Commission predicts that 3.1 million people will cast ballots for the Tuesday, November 8 General Election. That’s 69.6 percent of Wisconsin’s 2016 voting-age population of 4,449,170, according to Census estimates.
Michael Haas, Wisconsin’s chief elections official stated the following in a news release:
"We project turnout will be similar to the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, which was 2,996,869 (69.2 percent) and 3,080,628 (70.4 percent). We typically look at history for guidance in predicting turnout. We expect turnout for this election to be similar to previous presidential elections."
Even though absentee voting has been growing in popularity, it is not necessarily an indicator of higher overall turnout, Haas said. As of Thursday morning, 623,503 absentee ballots had been returned to municipal clerks for counting on Election Day. In 2012, 659,444 absentee ballots were counted, compared to 639,913 absentee ballots counted in 2008.
Historically, the highest voter turnout percentage in a November presidential election in the last 50 years was 72.9 percent in 2004. The highest number of voters to participate in a presidential election was 3,080,628 in 2012. Statistics on past voter turnout and current voter registration are available by CLICKING HERE.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission calculates election turnout as a percentage of the voting-age population, not as a percentage of registered voters. Wisconsin had 3,558,877 registered voters on November 2.