Milwaukee Plans Big 2024 Early Voting Push

File photo of voting site signs at Milwaukee Election Commission warehouse. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Planning in Milwaukee is already well underway for a bevy of 2024 elections.

On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Common Council unanimously approved a broad swath of early voting locations where city voters will be able to cast their ballots in the two weeks leading up to the elections, including spring city elections and the fall presidential election.

“This is big. This is important,” said Alderman Mark Chambers, Jr. in praising Milwaukee Election Commission director Claire Woodall and Mayor Cavalier Johnson for addressing the early voting sites. “Wisconsin is a battleground state. Milwaukee is the battleground city.”

Most notably, the city found a replacement for its popular, long-standing Midtown Center early voting site. A new owner of the shopping center, Laureate Capital, sought to raise the city’s rent and substantially cut the amount of space available.

The city will now swap the shopping center, 5740 W. Capitol Dr., for leased space in a former bank at 6001 W. Capitol Dr. Chambers, who represents the area, said the new location is directly served via the Milwaukee County Transit System and fully accessible for those with disabilities. “I look forward to having a robust and successful election season,” said the alderman.

The council approved an agreement that will have the city pay $138,484 to Ahmad Properties for an 18-month lease of the 9,232-square-foot space. The agreement also includes two 18-month extensions, with 4% increases.

“Every election matters,” said Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic in praising the resolution. The council unanimously sponsored the lease agreements.

A southside early voting site on private property will also be used. The city will lease American Serb Hall, 5101 W. Oklahoma Ave., for the fall presidential election, at a cost of $17,500.

A number of public buildings will also serve as early voting sites in the spring election, including the Zeidler Municipal Building, Zablocki Library, Washington Park Library, Tippecanoe Library, Good Hope Library, Milwaukee Area Technical College and UW-Milwaukee student union. A budget amendment, led by Dimitrijevic, added $10,000 to fund staffing for early voting at the two colleges.

“This victory comes after months of advocacy from a coalition of community organizations defending voting rights for those who depend upon Milwaukee’s most popular early voting site, the Midtown Shopping Center, as it faced closure. We joined Souls to the Polls, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, Power to the Polls, Leaders Igniting Transformation, SEIU, EXPO, Working Families Party, and Wisconsin Democracy Campaign to demand the visibly close, accessible, and equitable alternative at 6001 W. Capitol Drive,” said American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin deputy advocacy director James Stein in a statement after the vote.

Members of each group, including Souls to the Polls executive director Bruce Colburn and pastor Greg Lewis, filled a wing of the council chambers in advance of the vote and rallied outside afterward. “We hope that the community will utilize these new polling places to cast their vote and make their voices heard. Now, we gear up to get out the vote in 2024,” said Stein.

Even more public facilities are expected to be used for the fall presidential election, but a formal resolution designating the sites has yet to be introduced. The election commission has traditionally scaled up the number of early voting sites in accordance with expected turnout.

Early voting, technically in-person absentee voting, lasts for two weeks in the run up to an election. Unlike election day voting, city voters can vote at any early voting site. Voters can also return mailed absentee ballots to early voting sites while they are open. Early votes are processed alongside mail-in ballots at the city’s central count facility on election day. In-person ballots are processed at each polling site and transmitted to the Milwaukee County Election Commission.

Central Count Changes Loom

The city will also pay at least $16,637.50 to lease a portion of the Baird Center for its central count facility during the presidential election. That three-day lease agreement comes as the city, through separate channels, is pursuing a renegotiation of its revenue-sharing agreement with the convention center’s owner, the Wisconsin Center District.

The Baird Center also served as the central count facility for the 2022 gubernatorial election.

The action at the central count facility will look substantially different than it did in November 2020, when the city leased a floor of the then-vacant office building at 501 W. Michigan St. and processed ballots until early Wednesday morning. For one, there could be fewer absentee ballots to process, given a gradual return to in-person voting after the pandemic-induced absentee voting surge and a court prohibition on unstaffed drop boxes. Additionally, it could become a two-day event that starts before in-person voting.

A bill making its way through the Wisconsin State Legislature would allow clerks to start processing absentee ballots the day before the election. One of the key intentions of the bipartisan bill is to avoid the late-night results release when central count communities finish their processing and submit a large number of votes all at once, often long after in-person polls have closed. Central count facilities are open to the public.

For lower turnout elections, the election commission warehouse, 1901 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., is used as the central count facility.

Milwaukee residents will have at least four opportunities to vote in 2024. A spring primary will be held Feb. 10, with a general election April 2. A fall partisan primary will be held Aug. 13 with the general election on Nov. 5.