GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Wisconsin voters have requested nearly 1.1 million absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election.
A federal judge ruled on Monday that those ballots should still count if they’re received by Nov. 9, as long as they’re postmarked by election day.
“Our goal is to get it right. Make sure everybody’s vote counts who’s entitled to vote and that can take a little bit of time and make sure we have the right numbers, so the fact that all the results in doesn’t mean that something has gone wrong, It means that we’re doing our job,” Wisconsin Elections Commission Public Information Officer Reid Magney said.
FOX 11 reached out to several municipalities in the area, but many did not want to talk about the ruling.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission says the state might not have any results until the Monday after the election.
A similar court decision delayed the results of April’s vote.
Magney tells FOX the state is preparing for an appeal.
“We don’t really know what will happen but I know that we had a similar situation back in April where we couldn’t finish counting until the Monday after the election.”
Magney says about 10,000 people are requesting an absentee ballot every day.
“We’ve had to essentially turn our system on its head and reinvent that to make it easier for voters to request absentee ballots, easier for clerks to process those requests, easier for voters to track where their ballots are and make sure they’ve been counted.”
Wisconsin has started using what’s called ‘intelligent mail barcodes’ to better track absentee ballots.
The elections commission says even with the extension, voters should mail their ballots back at least seven days before Nov. 3.
To track your absentee ballot, click here.
