Here’s how to…
Click on Find My Polling Place.
Enter your home address and you’ll be provided with the address of your in-person voting polling location.
Also provided is a location map, along with the date and polling hours for your next election.
Voting in person will require you to present an acceptable form of photo identification.
This is a great option if you intend to vote in person on election day and your plans change.
Early in-person voting begins two Tuesdays before election day at the earliest. Call your Clerk for the exact day.
Go to MyVoteWisconsin and click on Vote Absentee In Person.
You’ll be prompted to enter your address. This will provide you with your early, in-person voting location and the dates and times you may vote there.
You’ll need to present an acceptable form of photo identification to vote this way.
Your absentee ballot will be registered to your polling location and look exactly the same as the ballots used there on election day.
Follow all instructions to vote.
Then sign and seal the certificate envelope that goes with your ballot. Your clerk will be your witness and sign the certificate envelope as well.
The envelope will be secured by your clerk until election day when poll workers check all absentee envelopes and open them for the first time.
Only then is your ballot run through a voting machine and cast.
By the end of election night, all in-person and absentee ballots registered to your polling location must be accounted for.
Click on Vote Absentee By Mail at MyVoteWisconsin.
You’ll be prompted to register to vote (if you haven’t) or update your voter registration (if you need to).
Then you’ll click on the Request Absentee Ballot icon.
Next, you’ll be required to submit a valid form of photo identfication from a list of acceptable options. Most people just upload a clear cell phone picture of their Wisconsin driver’s license.
Then you’ll click to receive an absentee ballot for all elections during the year or to select only the elections you want an absentee ballot for.
After reviewing all of the information you’ve input, click on the Request Ballot icon.
Absentee ballot requests may be made as early as January 1st, 2024.
Expect to receive yours in the mail about 45 days before each election for which you made the request.
Your absentee ballot is registered to your polling location. It will look exactly the same as the ballots used there on election day.
It comes with a pre-addressed, postage free certificate envelope in which to mail it, along with an instruction sheet.
A witness is required to observe you throughout the voting process. Anyone over eighteen may do this, including your spouse.
You and your witness should read and follow the instructions faithfully.
Complete your ballot confidentially. Seal your ballot in the certificate envelope and sign it. Then have your witness address and sign the envelope.
You may then mail in your ballot.
Or, you may return it in person to your clerk. You may only retrun your own ballot. If you’re married, your spouse must return their’s in person, too.
Whether returned or mailed, your absentee ballot must reach your clerk by 8 pm on election day.
You may click on Track My Ballot to see when your ballot has been received and secured at your clerk’s office.
On election day, poll workers check all absentee envelopes and open them for the first time.
Only then is your ballot run through a voting machine and cast.
By the end of election night, all in-person and absentee ballots registered to your polling location must be accounted for.
You may employ any of the above alternatives.
If you cannot vote by any of these methods, speak to your care facility management.
They’ll arrange for you and others who need individual assistance to vote.
Special Voting Deputies (one from each major political party) will be assigned to assist you in the voting process.
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
–Thomas Paine, 1776
SWL 12/23 http://www.bctaxpayers.com and saltwatertea.org
SaltwaterTea 