GAB: 206,000+ residents requested absentee ballots

MADISON -- The Government Accountability Board says more than 206,000 Wisconsin residents requested absentee ballots or participated in in-person absentee voting for the June 5th recall election.

As of noon Monday, June 4th, at least 206,128 absentee ballots were issued by Wisconsin’s local election officials who track them using the Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS). Just over one-third of municipalities track absentee ballots in SVRS, including all the state’s large cities.

To give these numbers some context, the GAB says a total of 68,000 absentee ballots were tracked in SVRS for the May 8th recall primary, which had an unofficial, overall turnout of 29.5 percent. On May 23rd, there were approximately 90,000 ballots tracked. On May 25th, there were 113,558 ballots tracked. On May 29th there were 130,391 ballots tracked. On May 31st, there were 164,848 ballots tracked. On June 1, there were 182,228 ballots tracked.

These numbers are likely to continue changing throughout the week as clerks enter data into the system. The GAB will continue to provide updated absentee ballot numbers daily next week as clerks enter them into the system.

As many as 75 percent of all absentee ballots are typically cast in the clerk’s office, with the remainder being delivered by mail.

In-person absentee voting in the clerk’s office ended Friday, June 1st. The deadline for most absentee voters to request ballots to be sent to them has also passed.

Sequestered jurors and people who are hospitalized can still request ballots until 5 p.m. on Election Day. Mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, and must be received by the clerk by 4 p.m. the Friday after the election.

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.

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