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Absentee ballot demand is high as municipalities prepare for election day

Posted at 9:33 PM, Oct 06, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-07 12:47:35-04

HOBART (NBC26) — On this day in 2016, Brown County had sent out 8,580 absentee ballots, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. As of today, 63,225 absentee ballots have been sent out so far for the 2020 election.

Most presidential election years, around 20 to 30 percent of voters in the Village of Hobart request absentee ballots. This year, they're already at 44 percent, and dozens of requests continue to come in every day, said Erica Berger, Village clerk and treasurer.

“As they come in we process them, we check them in, we keep them in the safe until election day when we’re able to count them," said Berger.

Their safe is currently holding 1,200 completed ballots, and while voters have until October 29th to request one, Berger says do it sooner rather than later.

“We always make every possible attempt to get ahold of our voters to make sure that everything is filled out properly, you know we want their vote to count as much as they do.”

The City of Green Bay has sent out around 21,000 ballots so far, and with the state extending the date for which ballots can be accepted, Celestine Jeffreys, Chief of Staff for the mayor's office, says people will have to be patient while waiting for the outcome.

“Their friends and their family and their neighbors have voted absentee," said Jeffreys. "And you should want those people who you love and know, you should want their ballots to be counted just as much as yours if you went to the polls on election day.”