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Posted on 05/22/2012 7:55:28 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
MADISON — By 2 p.m., the Madison City Clerk’s Office had issued 5,825 absentee ballots, 407 of this in-person.
Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl had a busy day.
She wasn’t alone.
High volume absentee ballot requests were coming into elections offices statewide Monday, the first day of early voting in Wisconsin’s recall elections — a little over two weeks away.
This was a long time in coming, Witzel-Behl said.
“Ever since January, we’ve been getting calls asking about the recall election, when could they get a ballot,” she said. “Absentee requests have been coming in the entire year.”
Up until May 8, local elections officials didn’t know who was going to take on Republican Gov. Scott Walker in the state's unprecedented gubernatorial recall election.
Late last week, the Government Accountability Board, the state’s elections watchdog, certified the primary election results, in which Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett bested all Democratic opponents for a rematch of the 2010 election.
While local elections officials have long accepted requests for absentee ballots, they couldn't begin sending them out and conducting in-office voting until Monday.
The ballot requests in Madison already overshot the 5,223 absentee ballots issued for this month’s recall primaries, and nearly half of the 12,121 absentee ballots received in the 2010 November election.
Witzel-Behl predicts a heavy absentee ballot count leading up to the June 5 election, and turnout on pace or better than the 67 percent notched in 2010.
In Milwaukee, the elections office had received 8,000 early-vote applications by Friday, including military residents and others overseas.
Sue Edman, director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said about 14,000 absentee ballots were cast in the November 2010 election.
“Every day we’re getting more and more applications,” she said.
Charlene Peterson, Appleton’s city clerk, said the office mailed out more than 1,000 ballot requests Monday, equaling the absentee ballots sent out for the primary.
“There is an increased interest, and I think part of that is due to the mailers that are out there,” Peterson said.
Other clerks, too, said their offices have received numerous absentee ballot requests from campaigns or political activists on behalf of voters.
“We’ve seen a lot of those come through our office,” said Andrea Canadeo, elections specialist for the city of Green Bay. She said the Green Bay Clerk’s Office mailed out more than 1,900 absentee ballots Monday.
Early voting has soared in the past few major elections, driven by voter courting from both major parties who have seen tactical advantages in getting the vote out before election day.
But Wisconsin’s unusual schedule in this recall election, with an early June election day, has something to do with the push to vote early.
“Obviously, school is over for some people and will be by June 5 for others, so that may affect the number of absentee ballots,” said Reid Magney, GAB spokesman.
That means a lot of Wisconsin voters will be boating or fishing or traveling — anywhere but a polling booth.
Elections workers look to clock in some extra time in the next two weeks, part of the cost of the projected $18 million for the recall primary and general elections — a ballot that includes recalled Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, three GOP state senators and an open senate seat.
In Madison, for instance, the clerk’s office hours are extended from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The office also will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, noon until 4 p.m. Sunday, and 9 a.m. until noon on Memorial Day.
May 31 is the last day for voters to request an absentee ballot by mail. June 1 is the last day for voters to register to vote at a municipal clerk’s office, and the last day for voters to make an absentee ballot application in person.
“We’ve seen a lot of those come through our office,” said Andrea Canadeo, elections specialist for the city of Green Bay. She said the Green Bay Clerk’s Office mailed out more than 1,900 absentee ballots Monday”
Once you request an absentee ballot, your name is marked in the book. And when your ballot comes in, your name is crossed off in the voter book. You cannot submit a 2nd, or 3rd ballot. There are ways to cheat, but I’m not going to outline them here. You never know who might be reading these threads. Hopefully the watchdogs are monitoring any loopholes in the system.
I don’t know exactly what this clerk means. I don’t think anybody is handing out piles of ballots. At least, I hope not. The Friends of Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin (and maybe the Club for Growth, or Americans for Prosperity) all sent out absentee ballot applications, pre- addressed to you City Clerk. It was a simple 2 part card. You filled it out with the pertinent voter information and address, etc., mailed it in, and the municipalities sent out absentee ballots yesterday, the first day that it could.
My ballot came today and I have already filled it out. Although it is pre-stamped, I will drive it down to City Hall tomorrow morning and cast it in person, rather than mailing it. I have received at least 3 of the applications, but I can only turn in one. Once they received the first one, any others would be discarded.
Everybody planning to vote by mail via absentee ballot should remember to have somebody witness it. They won’t count it unless that witness line is signed.
http://www.werewatchingwisconsinelections.org/
While I was trying to get the WI Jobs people to behave at City Hall today in my position as a City of Milwaukee Election Commissioner, the WI Jobs Supervisor there told me they had 20 vans running - bringing people to early vote. There was almost a continuous traffic jam with the vans bringing people to vote.
We badly need some poll watchers for this early voting event going on at Milwaukee Municipal Building (southwest corner of Broadway and Kilbourn) to keep any eye on the WI Jobs antics. If interested, please call me or Ardis Cerny at 262 510 4410. The vans start arriving around 10 AM to close 8 pm. This early voting will be open with reduced hours on Sat, Sun, &’Memorial Day.
I do not have the latest figures for today yet, Tuesday, but yesterday 457 people voted with 93 (20%) registering before voting.
Just saw David Axelrod answering a question about Walker recall - says “they” are giving WI $1 million dollars for ground game; hundreds of lawyers set to come, 60 paid staff and thousands of volunteers. You can bet these thousands of volunteers will vote with same day registration - they most likely will forgot they have not been in WI for 28 days with the intend to stay in WI.
Liberal Activists Target Wisconsin’s Two Largest Cities for Recall’s Get Out the Vote Efforts | MacI
OMG!
My daughter got two absentee ballots at her house in the last week. A few problems with that: 1) she didn’t request any, 2) they were both for the previous owner of the property, and 3) the previous owner has been dead for over five years.
If they were ballot requests that you fill out and mail in, I have no problem with that. I've received THREE of those in the past week, or so. The Walker campaign has mailed out tons of those request forms -- each one for 2 ballots per household. Mine were pre-addressed to my City Clerk, and I think my name may have already been filled in, but I'm not sure about that.
If they were real ballots for people 5 years in the ground, that is a problem for your County clerk. Those names should have been stricken from the rolls.
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