Update On Label Printing Delays

MADISON –  On Thursday morning the Wisconsin Elections Commission received reports from some local election officials who continued to experience delays affecting the system they use to print absentee certificate envelope labels.

The continued print time delays followed a system update that was implemented Wednesday evening to attempt to address the issue. WEC staff are continuing to work alongside state partners to conduct further analysis to pinpoint the root cause and ultimately improve label printing time.

The delays have only affected label printing times. Every other function of the system that clerks use to print is working optimally. At this time, there is no reason to believe this is affecting other areas of election administration or state government, nor is there any reason to believe the printing delays were caused by a cyberattack.

Printing a label is not required for in-person absentee voting, however, it is certainly an added efficiency for hard-working local election officials. On Wednesday evening, the WEC provided a communication to clerks recommending that, if they continue to experience delays in printing absentee certificate envelope labels Thursday, they should switch to handwriting in-person absentee information on the outside of the absentee certificate envelope until the printing delays are resolved. This had been the normal process prior to 2020.

You can view a photo of the certificate envelope (EL-122 Standard Absentee Ballot Certificate) at the following link: https://elections.wi.gov/wec-form/official-absentee-ballot-applicationcertification. Election officials can handwrite the information in the section labeled “Step 1.”

Label printing is a newer and optional efficiency, but not critical to the administration of in-person absentee voting. Municipal clerks continue to report high levels of in-person absentee voting. No voters should be turned away due to label printing delays. The WEC is thankful to local election officials for their patience and professionalism while agency staff continue to work to improve label printing speed.

The WEC plans to provide another update once we learn more.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.