With election falling during Easter break, absentee voting is robust
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
With the April 2 election falling during Easter break for local schools, municipal clerks are seeing a steady stream of residents taking advantage of early voting opportunities.
Conventional wisdom suggests voters who would otherwise be out of town during the break are taking steps to make sure their votes for the hotly contested School Board race and other contests are counted.
However, Town of Burlington Clerk Adelheid Streif suggested yet another reason:
“We have a lot of people who don’t like to stand in line (on Election Day).”
And that’s the beauty of the state’s early and absentee voting rules – voters can use virtually any reason to vote in person ahead of time at their municipal clerk’s office or to cast an absentee ballot by mail.
City of Burlington Clerk Diahnn Halbach said the turnout of in-person early voters in the city has been “very good.”
“It has been consistently busy,” she said, “although I don’t have a specific number at this point.”
Early in-person voting began March 18 and continues at city, town and village halls until 5 p.m. Friday, March 29. Voters are advised to check with their local clerks for exact office hours. Streif said all clerk’s offices are required to remain open Friday until at least 5 p.m., which also happens to fall on Good Friday – a day municipal offices are usually closed.
Requests to have mail-in absentee ballots sent to you must be received by the clerk’s office before 5 p.m. Thursday, March 28, in order to be processed in time for the election. Completed absentee ballots must, in turn, be postmarked by April 2 and must be received by the clerk’s office through the mail by Friday, April 5, before 4 p.m. to be counted.
Those who vote by absentee ballot also have the option of hand-delivering their ballot to their municipal clerk anytime before 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Voters are reminded they can only vote once – meaning they can’t show up at the polls on April 2 and cast a ballot in addition to a ballot cast early or by mail. In the past the state allowed voters to void their absentee or early ballots and vote on Election Day, but that is no longer an option.
For additional information on early in-person voting and absentee voting, contact your municipal clerk’s office or visit the state Government Accountability Board website at gab.wi.gov.
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