MADISON, Wis–The state Elections Commission issues a statement on system issues that continue to slow down in-person absentee voting this week. Lines in larger municipalities have grown long while clerks wait for a system that prints stickers placed on absentee ballot envelopes. The WEC says steps have been taken to try and speed up the processing:
On Thursday morning the Wisconsin Elections Commission received reports from some local election officials who continued to experience delays affecting the system they use to print absentee certificate envelope labels.
The continued print time delays followed a system update that was implemented Wednesday evening to attempt to address the issue. WEC staff are continuing to work alongside state partners to conduct further analysis to pinpoint the root cause and ultimately improve label printing time.
Printing a label is not required for in-person absentee voting, however, it is certainly an added efficiency for hardworking local election officials. On Wednesday evening, the WEC provided a communication to clerks recommending that, if they continue to experience delays in printing absentee certificate envelope labels Thursday, they should switch to handwriting in-person absentee information on the outside of the absentee certificate envelope until the printing delays are resolved. This had been the normal process prior to 2020.
You can view a photo of the certificate envelope (EL-122 Standard Absentee Ballot Certificate) at the following link.
Election officials can handwrite the information in the section labeled “Step 1.”
Municipal clerks continue to report high levels of in-person absentee voting. No voters should be turned away due to label printing delays.
The WEC is thankful to local election officials for their patience and professionalism while agency staff continue to work to improve label printing speed.
The WEC plans to provide another update once we learn more.
