In-Person Absentee Voting Surges Across Wisconsin
First day early turnout jumps 65% as mail-in ballots drop sharply from 2022 levels.
UW-Madison student Madeleine Afonso votes early in-person on campus Friday, March 28, 2025, in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
The number of Wisconsinites casting in-person absentee ballots on the first day of early voting surged by 65 percent compared to figures ahead of the 2022 midterm election.
At the same time, the number of ballots arriving to clerks by mail is down from four years ago, hinting at a shift in voting behavior tied to concerns about post office delays and President Donald Trump’s unsuccessful attempts to restrict who can vote by mail.
Tuesday was the first chance for Wisconsin voters to personally hand in their absentee ballots and all but five of the state’s 72 counties saw higher numbers than they did four years ago.
According to data from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Milwaukee County saw in-person absentee voting spike by 63 percent. In Dane County early voting jumped by 60 percent. And in Kenosha County, there was an 87 percent increase in early absentee voting on Tuesday.
The in-person increase comes after reported declines in the number of absentee ballots getting to clerks by mail. As of Tuesday, mail-in ballots were down nearly 26 percent statewide compared with the same point in 2022. Dane County reported receiving around 26 percent fewer ballots by mail. Milwaukee County reported a decline of around 22 percent.
That decline led to speculation from some conservatives on social media that voter enthusiasm was waning in Democratic strongholds. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee emeritus political science professor Mordecai Lee told WPR he’s got a different theory.
“I think the Trump administration just shot itself in the foot with all these months of saying that it wanted the post office to be able to control who got to vote by mail,” Lee said.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March directing the U.S. Postal Service not to “transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from any individual unless those individuals have been enrolled on a State-specific list.” The postal service responded with a proposed rule change in June to carry out the order.
Democrats and voter mobilization groups claimed Trump was trying to impede, restrict or eliminate voting by mail entirely following his many unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. After a federal judge blocked the post office rule in September, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. Justices rejected the appeal.
Clerks and the Wisconsin Elections Commission have also reported longer-than-usual delivery times for absentee ballots moving through the mail in recent elections.
In May, the commission sent a letter to U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner urging the postal service to take “extraordinary measures” to speed up deliveries. A survey of Wisconsin clerks found 67 percent reported noticing problems with the mail. Lee said recommendations from clerks and even the USPS urging voters to cast their mail-in ballots at least two weeks before the Nov. 3 election likely influenced voters, too.
“We’ve got a very alert electorate — presumably mobilized partly because some of them love Trump and partly because some of them hate Trump, but they are mobilized — and they’re determined to make sure their vote counts,” Lee said.
In-person absentee voting surges amid declines in ballots arriving by mail was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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My 90 year old mother, who has voted absentee by mail for the last several elections, asked to be driven to her city hall to drop off her ballot because she didn’t trust the post office.