How a Wisconsin county helped develop early voting hours

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Absentee voting didn’t was once widespread in Addison, a rural city of three,300 in southeast Wisconsin. A couple of days earlier than the final Supreme Courtroom election in 2023, solely about 60 residents had solid absentee ballots in particular person.

This 12 months, on the identical level within the election cycle, that quantity was over 300.

The sharp improve is due partly to Republicans’ current embrace of absentee voting, particularly within the almost two-week interval earlier than Election Day when voters can solid absentee ballots in particular person. Washington County, the place Addison is situated, is among the state’s most Republican counties and one in all many Republican-dominated areas throughout Wisconsin the place early voting charges have surged. 

However maybe a much bigger purpose is a current Washington County initiative geared toward making early voting extra accessible for voters and extra possible for municipalities. This system compensates municipalities for the prices of extending their hours in the course of the state’s early in-person voting interval. It makes up for the gaps in municipal budgets that beforehand restricted early voting alternatives.

“It actually comes right down to a matter of priorities,” Washington County Govt Josh Schoemann, a former municipal clerk, instructed Votebeat. “And there’s nothing extra basic to county authorities and to authorities generally, in Wisconsin and America, than the chance for folks to vote.” 

County absorbs the added prices for municipalities

The county first rolled out the initiative in the course of the November 2024 election as a part of a broader funding bundle permitted by the county board. The bundle included over $150,000 for prolonged in-person absentee voting hours, voluntary audits and cameras for poll drop packing containers throughout the county. 

Public funding for such actions is extra crucial now after voters final 12 months permitted a Republican-written constitutional modification banning non-public funding for election help, responding to a Republican outcry over non-public grants to fund election administration, particularly in Democratic strongholds.

County Board Chair Jeff Schleif stated he was desirous to help the proposal as a result of it could be sure that Republicans, who have been simply coming round to voting early, had the time and alternative to do it, simply as Democrats did in locations like Milwaukee. 

“Our board is as conservative because it’s ever been,” he stated, including that extending early voting hours is useful to all people.

Furthermore, Schleif stated, the proposal would authorize and fund election audits that might debunk allegations from folks like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell that some voting machines have been being hacked to vary votes.

After the November election, about $71,000 of the funds remained unspent. This 12 months, the county signed off on utilizing that cash to proceed this system into this high-stakes April election.

For this election, the county is compensating municipalities at 150% of the added price for extending their early voting hours past what they have been within the April 2023 election. About 90% of the municipalities within the county are collaborating, Washington County Clerk Ashley Reichert, a Republican, stated. The county additionally mailed voters a schedule of their city’s early voting hours.

Reichert stated the initiative goals to offer native residents with voting alternatives corresponding to city areas, together with weekend and evening voting choices. The extra hours profit many residents who commute to Milwaukee for work and might’t vote throughout typical enterprise hours, she stated.

“We’ve fairly just a few very rural communities the place the clerks are very part-time, and their budgets are small, and so for them, providing extra time was simply not a possible possibility,” she stated. “With the ability to take the funding off the desk as a priority actually helped fairly just a few of our municipalities.”

Extra hours for voting, and extra voters displaying up

Addison City Clerk Wendy Fairbanks stated early voting hours have expanded considerably because of the county’s help. In 2023, Addison’s early voting was typically open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday by Thursday. Now it’s open as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 6 p.m., together with Fridays.

“I’m ready to herald election employees to assist me with this so I’m not doing all of it by myself,” Fairbanks stated. “In any other case, I’d get no different work carried out.”

The county’s assist, she continued, “takes the burden off the city, in order that we’re not utilizing cash from our tax levy that might go in direction of street restore or one thing within the city.”

One other Washington County municipality, the village of Richfield, now gives Saturday hours for early voting because of county funding. About 90 residents participated on a current Saturday, contributing to a complete of 1,674 early ballots solid as of Thursday morning  — about double the quantity from this time two years in the past.

Village Administrator Jim Healy stated the initiative was essential for voters who couldn’t vote throughout common hours. “We actually felt strongly for most of these elections which have both state or nationwide implications that we should attempt to go the additional mile,” Healy stated, expressing hope that different Wisconsin counties would possibly observe Washington County’s instance.

In all, as of Thursday morning, Washington County had over 13,400 voters solid absentee ballots in particular person, almost triple the variety of votes at this level within the 2023 cycle and the fourth most within the state, regardless of it being solely the tenth largest county by voting age inhabitants. 

Whereas elevated absentee voting means extra ballots to course of, native clerks aren’t involved about considerably longer counting instances.

“That is completely including another factor,” Schoemann stated, “however I additionally know that their largest ache level is their budgets. They’re actually, actually tight. So we wish to attempt to hit their largest ache level the place we might help them and get what voters need, and that’s extra alternative.”

Different clerks take a look at the Washington County mannequin

Reichert, the Washington County clerk, stated she has heard from a variety of county and municipal clerks, together with legislators, concerned about replicating this initiative throughout the state. Proper now, although, she stated Washington County seems to be the one county providing municipal clerks that compensation. 

Which will change quickly: At a current occasion, Rep. Scott Krug, a legislative chief who previously chaired the Meeting Elections Committee, stated one in all his prime upcoming legislative priorities was funding early voting so each municipality gives the identical availability. He wasn’t accessible to remark additional on Thursday.

In the meantime, in most counties, early voting hours are uneven from city to city. In neighboring Ozaukee County, municipal clerks are staggering their hours to attempt to find time for residents searching for to vote early in particular person, stated County Clerk Kellie Kretlow, a Republican. Some municipal election workplaces are open daily for early voting, whereas others are solely open just a few days throughout the almost two-week voting interval.

Sheboygan County Clerk Jon Dolson, a Republican, instructed Votebeat he was within the proposal however couldn’t see how his fiscally conservative board would approve a $15,000 funding improve, a lot much less a $150,000 bundle just like the one handed in neighboring Washington County. The county board just lately lower the variety of positions in his workplace, he stated. 

So how did such a big spending proposal for election workplaces get by the fiscally conservative Washington County Board of Supervisors, which represents one of the vital staunchly Republican constituencies within the state?

Schoemann, the county govt, stated the board prioritized this initiative after years of disciplined budgeting and surplus administration.

He stated it was essential for officers on the county degree to take the lead, reasonably than anticipating native clerks to every ask for assist.

The proposals collectively have been billed as an “election integrity bundle” that will improve election safety — a priority that Republicans have repeatedly raised.

Reichert, the county clerk, stated it doubtless helped that the help for prolonged early voting hours was rolled right into a broader bundle addressing safety considerations round drop packing containers and audits. Extending early voting hours itself addressed a safety concern, she stated, since some supervisors questioned whether or not mailed ballots would arrive too late or get misplaced within the mail.

Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat primarily based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.

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