Absentee ballots sent to voters by mail must be postmarked by April 5, 2016 and received by the municipal clerk no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 8, 2016 in order to be included in the final tally.

The G.A.B. has projected that 1.75 million Wisconsin residents – or 40 percent of eligible voters – will vote in the 2016 Spring Election and Presidential Preference Primary, which would be the highest turnout since 1980 for an April election. 

Kevin Kennedy, Wisconsin’s chief elections official, cautioned that the absentee numbers released are partial and preliminary.  While a new law enacted in March requires municipal clerks to record absentee ballot data within 48 hours of issuance and return, some of the data tracking those ballots may not be entered yet.

In the April 2012 Presidential Preference Primary, there were a total of 94,859 absentee ballots out of 1,127,414 total ballots cast.  Of the 94,859 absentee ballots, 27,085 were in-person absentee.  The increased number of absentee ballots in 2016 can be attributed to the expected increase in voter turnout and a continuing emphasis on voting early by political campaigns.

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One WI Institute
4/6/2016
CONTACT: Mike Browne, Deputy Director

Walker, GOP campaign to manipulate election laws for partisan advantage results in long lines to vote

With Less Than 50 Percent Turnout, Voters Forced to Wait Hours to Cast Ballots

MADISON, Wis. -- The results of five years of manipulation of election laws by Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature was realized yesterday with numerous media reports of legal voters in municipalities across the state, especially on or near college campuses, being forced to wait in hours long lines to cast their ballots. With voter turnout below 50 percent, One Wisconsin Institute Executive Director Scot Ross, whose organization is the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit challenging the GOP's partisan efforts to gain an electoral advantage, raised concerns about even worse delays in a higher turnout in the November 2016 Presidential Election.

"The point of Gov. Walker and the Republicans legislative efforts was to manipulate the rules to make it more complicated and less convenient to vote and discourage those least likely to support them from showing up at the polls. With hours long lines, it appears their despicable strategy was working yesterday," said One Wisconsin Institute Executive Director Scot Ross.

Media reports on election day noted long lines to vote in a primary election in which turnout did not reach 50 percent. It appears polling locations with high percentages of students were especially hard hit with delays caused by the new voter ID law and the special conditions placed on the use of a student ID.

Ross added, "If voters had to wait in line for hours with a turnout of less than 50 percent, what can we expect in November when hundreds of thousands more voters show up?"

A lawsuit brought by One Wisconsin Institute and other voter rights advocates, filed in federal court in Madison, outlined more than a dozen policies that have made voting in Wisconsin more challenging for eligible citizens and seeks to strike down various restrictive voting measures put in place by Walker and the Republican State Legislature since 2011. The Institute has also set up a web page, "My Voting Story", for people to share their stories about any problems they may have had in casting their ballot.

He concluded, "The only fraud in Wisconsin elections has been proven: Gov. Walker and the Republican state legislature changed the laws for partisan, political gain. While we will be in court in May to try to overturn Gov. Walker's attacks on the franchise, nothing can restore the votes of those legal voters who are denied the most fundamental right in our democracy: the right to vote."

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One WI Now
4/6/2016
Contact: Mike Browne, Deputy Director

Wisconsin U.S. Rep. admits voter ID about rigging November 2016 elections

'On Election Day, the Truth Comes Out' -- One WI Now

MADISON, Wis -- U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman told a Milwaukee television reporter last night that he believed Republicans would win Wisconsin's Electoral College votes for the first time in over 30 years because of Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature's unconstitutional voter ID bill. As a then-state Senator, Grothman was the legislature's biggest cheerleader for the Voter ID law's passage in 2011.

"On Election Day, the truth comes straight from the horse's mouth: Republicans passed voter ID because they have to cheat to win in November," said Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now. "Thank you for providing even more evidence for our lawsuit."

In the exchange, available here, Grothman is interviewed by Charles Benson of WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee.

Charles Benson: "Take me forward to November. You know that a lot of Republicans since 1984 in the presidential races have not been able to win in Wisconsin. Why would it be any different for Ted Cruz or a Donald Trump."

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman: "Well, I think Hillary Clinton is the weakest candidate the Democrats have ever put up and now we have photo ID and I think photo ID is gonna make a little bit of a difference as well."

In addition to Grothman, Todd Allbaugh, then-chief of staff to former state Senator Dale Schulz, stated publicly yesterday that he was in on the behind closed doors meeting of legislators debating the Voter ID plot, writing:

"I was in the closed Senate Republican Caucus when the final round of multiple Voter ID bills were being discussed. A handful of the GOP Senators were giddy about the ramifications and literally singled out the prospects of suppressing minority and college voters. Think about that for a minute. Elected officials planning and happy to help deny a fellow American's constitutional right to vote in order to increase their own chances to hang onto power."

Allbaugh added additional information about the secret meeting in a public Facebook post.

"Republicans are finally publicly admitting that they are manipulating election laws to give themselves an unfair partisan advantage," concluded Ross. "The right to vote is sacred and should not be subject to interference from partisan, political games."

One Wisconsin Now's education and research arm, One Wisconsin Institute, , scheduled for court in May, to overturn all of Gov. Walker and the Republican attacks on voting rights over the past five years.

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Brennan Center for Justice
April 6, 2016

Wisconsin Photo ID Law Leads to Long Lines

Congressman Says ID Law Will Help GOP Win Wisconsin in November

Confusion over Wisconsin’s strict new photo ID law contributed to hour-long lines and other challenges for voters in yesterday’s primary, according to widespread media reports.

Multiple media outlets reported long waits, particularly in student precincts in areas like Eau Claire, Madison, and Milwaukee. One Green Bay election official attributed the long lines and bottlenecks to the Badger State’s strict photo ID law, saying it “just plain slows things down.” The new requirement made voting a multi-step process for some voters, who waited in one line to register, another to get a form of ID acceptable under the law, and finally another line to cast a ballot.

In an interview with a local Milwaukee TV station, U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Campbellsport) said the photo ID law would help the GOP presidential nominee winWisconsin in the fall. “Now we have photo ID,” he said, “and I think photo ID is gonna make a little bit of a difference as well.”

Wisconsin is one of 17 states with new voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election in 2016.

Voting rights experts from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law — including Michael Waldman, author of The Fight to Vote — are available to discuss the implications of long lines in Wisconsin and how these restrictions could impact voters in the fall.

“As yesterday showed, Wisconsin’s strict photo ID law does nothing but create a hassle and confusion at the polls,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “Primaries have much lower turnout, so yesterday was just a preview. In what will likely be a high-turnout election year, we could see these lines multiply come November. Election officials and lawmakers must do everything they can to prepare for Election Day and ensure every voter can cast a ballot that counts.”

At Marquette University, the last voter exited nearly two hours after the polls were closed. 

“It seems like the state legislature doesn’t want a bunch of students voting,” Jessica Franco-Morales, a junior at University of Wisconsin – Madison, told ThinkProgress. “[The lawmakers] could have changed the law to make our student IDs compatible, but they didn’t. Their attack on certain populations seems pretty blatant.” Other students called the waits “frustrating.”

Contributing to confusion is a lack of education around the requirements, which has not received formal funding due to hold ups in the Republican-controlled legislature,ProPublica reported.   

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Marissa Marzano