By james art 
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – At 7 a.m. Tuesday, polls opened for Election Day, allowing election officials to begin processing and counting all absentee and mail-in ballots. Wisconsin is one of seven states in the nation that, under state law, must refrain from handling ballots before polls open on Election Day.
“Over 1.5 million absentee ballots will be returned for Tuesday’s election. And you know, also, keep in mind that processing absentee ballots takes time, especially since Wisconsin is one of the few states where clerks and clerks can’t even begin processing absentee ballots until the polls open for the day at the polls,” said Wisconsin Elections Representative Megan Wolfe.
She explained that every mail-in and in-person absentee ballot “must be verified, announced, opened and tabulated on Election Day as part of the public Election Day process.” Only from there can the vote be counted.
Wisconsin voter Jonathan Greenberg said he’s not used to waiting for officials to start processing early ballots.
“I used to live in Florida and what they would do is count all the early votes in advance, so on election night in Florida they would just throw out all the early votes immediately and then the election day result would trickle out,” said Greenberg.
Wolfe said state law also requires election officials to finish counting all ballots in one session without stopping.
“In Wisconsin, every ballot has to be returned by 8:00 p.m. to be counted, and once they start counting, they have to keep counting until they’re done. And so we know they’re going to finish their count in one session because we don’t have the ability, under the law, to adjourn and reconvene at a later date,” Wolf said.
Election workers must process and count all ballots, including early votes, on Election Day in one session. Wolff said the number of ballots on such short notice is responsible for why clerks can finish early the morning after Election Day.
“People shouldn’t be surprised if it takes time to get unofficial results, election officials will always prioritize accuracy, integrity and transparency over speed, and just because they’re waiting until the early hours of the morning doesn’t mean something’s gone wrong.” Wolf said.
Maggie Hutter said she cares about her vote, but after the election tomorrow, she won’t be up all night waiting for the unofficial results.
“I’m going to order Great Dane nachos because that’s my reward at the end of Election Day, I think the news will definitely be in our living room and my husband will be watching, but I’m looking for a brain break at the end of the day,” Hutter said.
Greenberg, on the other hand, is determined to stay awake.
“I’m going to stay up until the election is called,” Greenberg said. “I’m on duty tomorrow so my daughter will come down around 7.45pm and then I’ll go down to start looking at the results.”
Regardless of how voters plan to spend their night after the polls close at 8 p.m., election officials will be hard at work processing and counting every election ballot that has been cast in the state this year.
Wolff wants voters to remember that tomorrow’s results are considered unofficial.
“We fully understand that everyone is anxiously awaiting the results. People need to remember that the results you see on election nights are completely unofficial. That means they have not been verified or double- or triple-checked through the numerous steps that are provided in our law when an election becomes certified,” Wolff said.
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