For Third Straight Day, Wisconsin IT Systems Cause Delays in Early Voting
But more than 190,000 early votes have been cast.
Early vote here sign in Milwaukee. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Wisconsin election officials will need to rethink any pending purchases of a “Mission Accomplished” banner.
For the third day in a row, early voters in Wisconsin are experiencing substantial delays in being able to cast their ballots due to issues with a Wisconsin Elections Commission IT system.
The server issue substantially delays the printing of labels for in-person absentee ballots used in early voting.
After nearly 100,000 people voted Tuesday, with long lines forming in several communities, a press release entitled “WEC Resolves System Lags Caused by High Turnout” was sent out. The issue was attributed solely to a surge of voters on the first day of early voting.
Then it happened again on Wednesday.
WEC said the problem impacted more than the WisVote system, and included non-election state systems too, but that voter turnout was compounding the issue. WEC said it was working on the issue.
But hours later, WEC Commission Chair Ann Jacobs tweeted: “Good news! Our amazing team thinks we have solved the printing issue! Right now, labels are being printed in seconds at in person voting sites.”
She added a caveat to her 5:59 p.m. social media post that many polling places had already closed for the day, so the solution wasn’t sure to work.
“We believe it has been resolved,” said Governor Tony Evers in an interview Thursday morning with Steve Scaffidi.
But, it didn’t work and it hasn’t been resolved.
When early voting sites opened in Milwaukee Thursday morning, multiple voters reported long wait times and attributed it to a printer issue.
Clerks across the state access the state system to confirm voter information and generate a label. Poll workers can handwrite the information, with WEC’s Wednesday press release suggesting that might even be faster given the server issues.
“Voters should not be waiting 5 minutes for a sticker when their information can be hand written faster,” posted Jacobs, who also reminded everyone to be kind to election workers.
According to the Milwaukee Election Commission website, 9,133 Milwaukee residents voted early in the first two days. Early voting continues through Sunday, Nov. 3.
Across the state, 191,869 early votes have been cast, 97,436 votes on Tuesday and 94,433 on Wednesday. The early votes are technically absentee ballots and are stored in envelopes until polls open on election day. There were approximately 650,000 early votes cast in the 2020 presidential election.
For more on where and when early voting is available in Milwaukee, see our guide.
Looking for a strategy to find a short line? Almost half of the city’s votes came from two sites: the Capitol Drive and Zeidler Municipal Building polling places. Try either the Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Downtown campus or the Clinton Rose Senior Center sites, which have the lowest totals. Daily site-by-site totals held steady for the first two days.
Because the labels are not used on in-person voting on election day, the issue as currently described is unlikely to impact turnout on Nov. 5.
WEC officials did not immediately respond to a request for an update on the status of the problem Thursday morning.
UPDATE: Shortly after publication, the situation on the ground appeared to have changed. Voters at the Zeidler Municipal Building were no longer experiencing a line. Poll workers said printing was no longer an issue and Urban Milwaukee observed several voters cast their ballot, including sealing it, in approximately six minutes.
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