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Wisconsin is one of four states, along with Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, that have received non-credible bomb threats, the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed to Wisconsin Watch. In a statement, the FBI said the threats came from email accounts with Russian domains.

Madison was one of the cities targeted, according to a city official, who said that the Madison Police Department coordinated with federal officials to determine they were fake. As a result, no polling places were evacuated — unlike in Georgia, which temporarily cleared two polling places and, as a result, has extended voting in some locations. The Madison Police Department has not responded to a request for comment.

Russian disinformation targeting Wisconsin has also appeared on social media. At least two accounts have shared a video of a person getting assaulted at a polling place, claiming it shows a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris attacking a voter supporting ex-President Donald Trump. A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Commission said they had seen the video but had “not heard any reports of attacks or violence at polling places today.”

Darren Linvill, a Clemson University professor who researches disinformation, said it has all the hallmarks of content produced by Storm-1516, a pro-Russia disinformation campaign that Linvill and his team first publicly identified in 2023.

Multiple federal agencies, including the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, have recently warned that foreign influence campaigns from Russian and elsewhere would target swing states “to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”

“Storm-1516 has already hit both Georgia and Pennsylvania, Wisconsin is a natural third target as another battleground state,” Linvill said by email. “They want to incite violence, and this is attempting exactly that.” 

— Phoebe Petrovic

7:34 p.m.

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Milwaukee to restart ballot count

Milwaukee election officials started all over again counting the city’s absentee ballots Tuesday afternoon after an observer noticed that the panel doors on the city’s 13 tabulators weren’t properly closed.

By the time city officials decided to restart the counting around 4 p.m., over 30,000 absentee ballots had already been fed into the tabulators, Milwaukee spokesperson Caroline Reinwald said. The city has over 106,000 absentee ballots in total.

BREAKING: Milwaukee is going to recount every absentee ballot that had been counted because of this issue. They had already tabulated 30,000 ballots.

The count will go very late https://t.co/fqEzmHHnRt

— Alexander Shur (@AlexanderShur) November 5, 2024

That decision came after a Republican observer pointed out that the panel door that covers a tabulator’s on and off switch — and, in at least some cases, slots for inserting USB drives to export election results — was unlocked after workers had been using the tabulators for several hours. Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez then went from tabulator to tabulator, monitored by representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties, to secure each one between 2 and 2:30 p.m.

City election officials said there was no indication any of the tabulators had been tampered with — and that it would have been clear had somebody accessed them. The slots are used at the end of the night, when election officials insert USB drives to export election results before driving them to the county to submit the data.

“If (the off buttons) were tampered with, it would completely turn off,” Gutiérrez told Votebeat. “That would be very evident of tampering, so we just properly locked them and resealed them.”

There were no USB drives in any of the tabulators, she added.

The decision to restart the count, city spokesperson Jeff Fleming said, was “out of an abundance of caution.”

“We have no reason to believe that there was any compromise to any of the machines,” he said. “But because they were not fully sealed — human error — … we are going to zero them all out again and rerun the ballots that had already been processed.”

Read here more from Alexander Shur of Votebeat.

6:02 p.m.

Jump to dispatches below

• What a GOP election observer sees at Central Count in heavily Democratic Milwaukee
• ‘Voter rescue’ effort in Milwaukee
• Milwaukee count starts late
• ‘When it’s their time to come, I may be gone’: Voting excitement at Boys & Girls Club in Milwaukee
• Republican who claimed fraud in 2020 election observing election in Milwaukee
• ‘Purple Watch Party’ in Green Bay celebrates democracy and civility
• Green Bay Central Count offers update
• UW-Oshkosh students cast ballots, many in their first presidential election
• Madison woman: ‘It makes me cry every time I vote.’
• Truths and falsehoods about elections 
• Oshkosh voters arrive early to library polling location
• ‘Use your voice’: Ex-incarcerated Milwaukee man cherishes regained voting rights
• First-time voters cast ballots in Eau Claire
• 1.5 million have voted so far. Here’s what it means for election night.
• Early voting in a nursing home: ‘It’s going to make a difference’ 
• In Milwaukee housing projects, voters feel ‘great energy,’ not fears expressed in 2020
• Effects of early voting shown in Milwaukee suburb
• Hitch a ride to your polling place

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What a GOP election observer sees at Central Count in heavily Democratic Milwaukee

Jefferson Davis, a believer of the discredited claim that widespread fraud was committed in Wisconsin in the 2020 election, liked some of what he saw Tuesday serving as a Republican observer at Central Count in heavily Democratic Milwaukee. 

Working at the Baird Center convention facility downtown, where muffled conversations among some 200 people was about all that could be heard, city election coordinator Stephanie Rushing explained why ballots on one table had been rejected (missing signatures, commonly). Colored wristbands showed that the pairs of people opening the envelopes containing absentee ballots were mixed (Republican, Democratic or independent).

But Davis, the former village president in the Milwaukee suburb of Menomonee Falls, also seemed quick to spy a potential conspiracy.

Davis wondered aloud why some tables weren’t fully staffed (lunch breaks explained some of that); why workers weren’t working faster (a ploy to delay counts until after observers left, he conjectured); and why a tabulation machine needed attention when ballots jammed up (the fix was quick).

Then, about 2 p.m., an observer discovered the tabulation machines had not been properly “locked.” It wasn’t clear whether the oversight made the machines vulnerable, but it forced a recount of 30,000 ballots and raised concerns about the overall election administration in Milwaukee.

Davis’ concerns this year focused on absentee ballot processing and on computer flash drives.

Absentee processing: All ballots are counted on Election Day, but processing absentee ballots is more involved. Absentee ballots, either cast at early voting sites or sent through the mail, arrive at polling places in envelopes that must be checked for things such as signatures from the voter and a witness. Then the envelopes are opened and the ballots are fed into a tabulator. The process is centralized in some communities, such as Milwaukee.

Flash drives: In Milwaukee, flash drives — thumb-size data-storing devices — are to be cleared and reformatted before being put in sealed envelopes; the process is witnessed and both a Democrat and a Republican are among the observers who sign a certification of the process. After the polls are closed and all ballots are processed, voting results from the tabulation machines are exported to the flash drives. Witnesses also sign a document certifying that the exports were done. The flash drives are then transported to Milwaukee County, with a Democrat and a Republican traveling with the drives and an election inspector in the same vehicle. 

A mistake in 2020 led to new procedures for handling the flash drives that Davis praised. Then-Milwaukee election director Claire Woodall reported to the Wisconsin Elections Commission that one flash drive had been misplaced, but never left unmonitored, in the process of transporting the drives to the county.

“That’s not happening again tonight,” Davis said.

— Tom Kertscher

5 p.m.

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‘Voter rescue’ effort in Milwaukee

Supermarket Legends volunteers are doing their “voter rescue” efforts at three early voting sites in Milwaukee. The aim is to redirect voters who go to early voting sites that aren’t also polling places, and thus don’t host voting on Election Day. The left-leaning nonpartisan group, which takes its name from doing voter registration outside of supermarkets, redirected 800 people to their local polling places in the 2020 presidential election.

On Monday, volunteers went to two early voting sites in Milwaukee and encountered 760 voters trying to cast ballots, co-coordinator Linea Sundstrom said. She said it was the first time the group did a rescue effort on the day before Election Day. Early voting ended Sunday. As of 11:40 a.m., about 480 Election Day voters were helped, Sundstrom said.

– Tom Kertscher

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Milwaukee count starts late

There were also counting delays in Wisconsin. Absentee ballot processing and counting began at Milwaukee’s central count just before 9 a.m. Tuesday — just under an hour later than city election officials had intended to start, and about two hours after the state allows election officials to begin processing absentee ballots. The delay was mostly due to the extra time needed to check in workers and put them in the right area of central count, Milwaukee spokesperson Melissa Howard said.

The city remains on path to finish tabulating ballots by 2 or 3 a.m. Wednesday, Milwaukee election director Paulina Gutiérrez said on Tuesday.

Under Milwaukee rules, all of the city’s 106,000 absentee ballots are processed and tabulated at one central count location. State law doesn’t allow election officials to tabulate or process any ballots before Election Day, a policy that is largely responsible for the typically late uploading of absentee ballots.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers tried to change that policy this past legislative session, but it stalled in the Senate.

— Alexander Shur

1:10 p.m.

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‘When it’s their time to come, I may be gone’: Voting excitement at Boys & Girls Club in Milwaukee

Cheers, clapping and cowbell ringing echoed throughout a gymnasium Tuesday as first-time voters were celebrated at the Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club in the Sherman Park neighborhood of Milwaukee. 

Casting a ballot was far from new for veteran voter Alvonia Missouri, 74. But she hoped the scene would inspire her great-grandchildren, ages 5 and 7, to participate in future elections.

“When it’s their time to come, I may be gone,” Missouri said, joined by the children. 

Poll worker Jeannie Berry-Matos, an active Sherman Park Community Association member since 1996 who has previously volunteered at the polls, said she witnessed enthusiasm that made this year’s election stand out.  

“People are coming in and they’re excited to vote,” Berry-Matos said. “I watch them bring their family members in. Grandmothers are saying, ‘it’s my granddaughter’s first time voting,’ so it’s pretty impactful.’” 

– Joe Timmerman

4 p.m.

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Republican who claimed fraud in 2020 election observing election in Milwaukee

Jefferson Davis, the former village president in the Milwaukee suburb of Menomonee Falls, is among the Republican Election Day observers. He’s focusing on the “central count” processing of Milwaukee absentee ballots, which is done at the Baird Center convention facility downtown. The observation process includes ensuring that envelopes for absentee ballots have proper signatures and that computer flash drives, which transmit the results to Milwaukee County officials, are secure. 

Davis reiterated that he believes fraud “affected the outcome” of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. But he said working with Milwaukee election officials “has plugged a lot of the holes that will make the administration of the election in 2024 one that will be open, honest and fair.” 

Davis was among leaders in Wisconsin who claimed widespread fraud in Wisconsin in 2020. In 2022, Davis organized a rally at the State Capitol to seek support for a Republican resolution that aimed to retract Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes for Joe Biden in 2020. 

There was no widespread fraud in Wisconsin. Reviews were done by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and The Associated Press, and partial recounts were done in Dane and Milwaukee counties.

Anyone except a candidate running for election can be an election observer at polling stations and at central count sites in Wisconsin. Observers must sign in with their name and address and, if any, the organization they’re observing for; they must present photo identification and wear a badge while observing. Observers can challenge a voter’s eligibility, but can’t engage in electioneering. News media are also allowed to monitor polling places and central count sites.

– Tom Kertscher

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‘Purple Watch Party’ in Green Bay celebrates democracy and civility 

As happy hour approaches, Democrats and Republicans can cheer their favorite candidates or drink away their political sorrows at a variety of partisan election watch parties statewide.

Bipartisan options and nonpartisan options, however, are harder to come by.

The Greater Green Bay Chamber hopes to change this with The Purple Party, its first ever “bi-partisan election watch party.” The event is a product of the chamber’s Civic Engagement Committee, and organizers hope to “do something that celebrates the Democratic process and the power of the people.” 

Organizer Patrick Noel was excited for the event. Noel said that he’s witnessed political divisiveness for years and wants people from all political backgrounds to “talk to each other and to have an actual conversation.”

“We all know political conversations aren’t always easy – it’s very complicated when you’ve got issues that are emotionally tied or when you’ve got different information than another person does,” Noel said. “We’re trying to give people the tools to do it, and the chance to talk to each other and learn from each other and learn new things.”

Matt Rentmeester, vice president of talent & education at the Greater Green Bay Chamber, said that he’s heard positive feedback from the community surrounding the event.

“It’s just a way to celebrate the core of what Election Day should look like,” Rentmeester said. 

Rentmeester said that organizers are aware of the possibility for arguments to arise, but they’ve crafted ground rules to encourage attendees to leave their “partisan rhetoric behind and really be open to discussions with civility.”

“Whether people stick to this or not – we’ll find out tonight,” Rentmeester said.

The Purple Party will start at 7 p.m. in Hagemeister Park in Green Bay.

– Julius Shieh

3 p.m.

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Green Bay Central Count offers update

In a Facebook post, Green Bay officials confirmed that 4,363 absentee ballots were counted as of 6:30 p.m.

The city said 20,154 absentee ballots were returned through Monday, and ballot drop boxes  closed at 7 a.m. Tuesday. The city had yet to guess how long workers will be counting ballots at Green Bay Central Count.

– Julius Shieh

6:30 p.m.

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UW-Oshkosh students cast ballots, many in their first presidential election

Students and community members lined up to cast their ballots Tuesday morning at the Culver Family Welcome Center at UW-Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 

First-year UW-Oshkosh student Theodorus Guigley voted for the first time, heading to the polls together with fellow third-year student Skylar Kulick.

Both Guigley and Kulick said they felt stressed about the presidential election.

“I don’t know how it’s a choice,” Guigley said. “If it wasn’t such a ‘vote against the person you disagree with the most, for the person you disagree with the least’ (situation) I’d be voting for someone else.”

Guigley said that ranked choice voting and having viable third-party political options would improve the electoral system.

“I did my civic duty,” Guigley said.

Sophomores Adam Ketter and Jacob Young were working at the university polling area, standing at the entrance to greet voters and provide information. For both, 2024 marked the first presidential election in which they’ve voted.

Ketter and Young chose to work the polls to fulfill a requirement for a government class. Both will work at the UW-Oshkosh polling location for the entire day, staying until after polls close at 8 p.m.

Ketter said that he was glad to be able to vote. “I think this is definitely the most important election, maybe forever,” Ketter said.

– Julius Shieh

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Truths and falsehoods about elections 

Wisconsin Watch fact briefs have sorted out a number of voting-related claims:

• No, Donald Trump did not win Wisconsin in 2020; Joe Biden won by less than 1%, about 20,000 votes.
• No, there was not widespread fraud in the 2020 election in Wisconsin; reviews were done by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and The Associated Press, and partial recounts were done in Dane and Milwaukee counties.
• No, 20,000 people in Wisconsin with the same phone number vote did not vote in the 2020 presidential election; records for more than 20,000 people listed with the same phone number in the Wisconsin Elections Commission system are for inactive voters who were given a default phone number.
• Yes, groups in Green Bay, Wisconsin, offered free food and an open bar to voters in the April 2, 2024, election; it was canceled after a prosecutor said the campaign might violate Wisconsin law on election bribery.
• Yes, Wisconsin was decided by less than 1 percentage point in four of the last six presidential elections.
• Yes, over 80% of voting in some states is done by mail; in November 2022, there were seven states, all in the West (Wisconsin’s rate was 16.9%).

We also fact-checked many statements made by Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, JD Vance and Tim Walz when they campaigned in Wisconsin. We found that many claims about immigration, health care and the economy were false or misleading. Here’s a look.

– Tom Kertscher

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Oshkosh voters arrive early to library polling location

Rain marked the start of Election Day at Oshkosh Public Library in Oshkosh. 

Dozens of voters lined up in umbrellas and raincoats in the hour leading up to the 7 a.m. poll opening time. Some voters arrived as early as 6 a.m.

Shane Worden, 51, was among the first in line.

“I start working at 8 and don’t get off until 5,” Worden said. “I’d rather beat the 5 o’clock going home push. I’d rather go home and just chill out.”

Parents Sharon and Dylan Chmura-Moore stopped by the library to cast their ballots with their children, Sophia and Elliot, in tow. 

Sophia and Elliot watched as their parents filled out ballots, and both helped as Sharon and Dylan entered the ballots into a voting machine.

“We’ve been bringing them since they were infants,” Dylan Chmura-Moore said.

By 7:30 a.m., the line to get to the polls had swelled, with hundreds waiting.

– Julius Shieh

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Ex-incarcerated Milwaukee man cherishes regained voting rights

Ray Mendoza doesn’t care who you vote for. He just wants you to vote. 

To Mendoza, 54, the right to vote is too precious to squander. That’s how the Milwaukee man feels after surrendering that right for the roughly 20 years he spent in a federal penitentiary and on probation.

“I encourage everybody, if you’re a convicted felon and you’re not on probation or parole, get out and vote. Use your voice,” Mendoza last week told a reporter outside Milwaukee’s Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building, where he voted for the third time in his life — casting an in-person absentee ballot. 

Read Mendoza’s full story here. 

– Mario Koran 

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First-time voters cast ballots in Eau Claire 

First-time voter Kristanna Alvarez Mercado cast her ballot Tuesday afternoon at Bethesda Lutheran Church in Eau Claire. 

The 21-year-old moved here from Puerto Rico in 2017. She said she supported Harris for president long before a speaker at Trump’s Oct. 27 Madison Square Garden rally compared Puerto Rico to an “island of floating garbage”  — a  comment she called “unacceptable.”

“There’s amazing people there, and as a person who lived there I was like, ‘big no,’” she said, adding that issues surrounding women’s rights and abortion primarily motivated her to vote for Harris.

Fritz Soronen, 64, also cast his first ballot at the Eau Claire polling place, deciding to show up after hearing his son was voting. 

“I decided to come today because the way the economy is going and bad things are happening around the world,” Soronen said.

“I voted for Donald Trump,” Soronen said. “I thought he (Trump) did a great job last time he was in office.”

Madilyn Kempen, 18, and Archer Paulson, 20, cast their first presidential election ballots together. 

Paulson, a student at Chippewa Valley Technical College, said a college get-out-the-vote campaign motivated him. 

Kempen, who voted for Harris, said she showed up because this election felt important.

“I would just way rather have one president than the other,” she said.

– Addie Costello

6 p.m.

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In Milwaukee housing projects, voters feel ‘great energy,’ not fears expressed in 2020

The Milwaukee nonpartisan group Common Ground is working near 10 polling sites that serve residents of Milwaukee public housing projects, said executive director Jennifer O’Hear. The work includes knocking on doors of residents in high-rise apartment buildings where voting is done in the same building and asking residents to contact family and friends to encourage them to vote, she said.

“There’s just a great spirit and a great energy,” O’Hear said. “In 2020, there was a real fear people had about whether they were voting properly and that their vote would be counted.

“I’m not getting that vibe that much this time. I’m hearing that everyone in their social circle is voting.”

– Tom Kertscher

11:30 a.m.

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Effects of early voting shown in Milwaukee suburb

Three voters in the Milwaukee County suburb of Wauwatosa who voted late in the morning, including two who cast ballots at City Hall, said they didn’t have any wait time. Beth Strohbusch voted at Trinity Episcopal Church.

“I anticipated pulling into a full parking lot. There were only a few cars,” Strohbusch said. “There was no line and only two others casting ballots.”

— Tom Kertscher

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1.5 million have voted so far. Here’s what it means for election night.

In 2020, a lot was made of a so-called “red mirage” or “blue shift.” 

On election night, millions of Americans went to bed with former President Donald Trump leading among returns, only for them to wake up to Joe Biden having surpassed him in some states after large, mostly Democratic cities like Milwaukee processed absentee ballots into the early morning hours of Wednesday.

Trump used his election night lead to baselessly claim that he won the election. Eventually, on social media, he demanded that election workers “STOP THE COUNT!” as his paths to victory evaporated.

The delay in reporting election results was attributed to the massive increase in absentee ballots cast in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — which broke heavily for Democrats. That wasn’t surprising given in the months leading up to Election Day, Trump questioned the validity of absentee voting. Some 1.9 million people voted via an absentee ballot in Wisconsin in 2020, far surpassing previous records, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

As of Nov. 4, a little over 1.5 million absentee ballots have been cast in Wisconsin. At the same time in 2020, more than 1.8 million absentee ballots had been returned.

Historically, with the exception of 2020, about 20% of Wisconsin general election voters in presidential election years voted via absentee ballots. This usually ranges from 600,000 to 800,000 votes. In 2024, the state broke a million votes on Oct. 30.

When counting absentee ballots, poll workers have to announce who cast a ballot, check the voter’s name off a poll list, open the ballot envelope, unpack the ballot and feed it into a tabulator. That process takes time, especially in communities like Milwaukee where absentee ballots are counted in a single location.

Five communities across the state swapped to central absentee ballot counts in 2024. In full, 41 cities, towns or villages use the centralized system. The cities of Milwaukee and Kenosha were the first to adopt this method, in 2007 and 2008 respectively. As of Nov. 4, there are a little over 400,000 absentee votes cast in municipalities that use the centralized system. 

Despite fewer absentee ballots being cast, election officials are still warning that it will be a late night.

“I don’t think it’ll be that bad,” Paulina Gutiérrez, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, told WisPolitics.com about when to expect results from the city after polls close. “But it won’t be like a smaller election, and so it will be a late night.”

– Jack Kelly and Khushboo Rathore

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Early voting in a nursing home: ‘It’s going to make a difference’ 

Arlene Meyer says she’s voted in every election since she was 21 — the legal voting age until 1971. Last month she cast her 17th vote for president from her nursing home. 

“It was excellent,” Meyer said Friday. “Everybody had a chance to vote for whoever they wanted to.”

Local election officials brought voting machines into Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, Wisconsin, weeks before election day. If a municipal clerk receives at least five absentee ballot requests from nursing home residents, special voting deputies can be sent into that facility to collect residents’ votes, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

The return of special deputies to nursing homes ahead of Election Day marks one clear difference from 2020, an election shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Backers of former President Donald Trump thrust nursing home voters into efforts to delegitimize President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s partisan investigation of the election identified a couple of cases of people in nursing homes who had voted despite a court adjudicating them “incompetent” and removing their voting rights.

Special voting deputies didn’t visit nursing homes in 2020, because WEC’s bipartisan members waived rules requiring them, seeking to limit COVID-19’s spread to vulnerable seniors. That meant nursing home staff were tasked with helping residents fill out ballots.

Trump’s allies seized on that context to baselessly claim thousands of adjudicated incompetent voters may have had votes cast in their name. A Wisconsin Watch investigation later found those claims to be dramatically inflated, though it also found the state lacks a statutorily defined system for ensuring those ruled mentally incompetent don’t vote. An attempt to create such a system failed to pass the state Senate earlier this year.

The issue even came up in the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde, who in April while discussing potential voting irregularities said, “if you’re in a nursing home, you only have five, six months’ life expectancy. Almost nobody in a nursing home is in a point to vote.”

Meyer, a former Lincoln County Board Supervisor, said she remained fully competent to mark her ballot in this election.

“I’m 86 and mentally stable,” she said with a chuckle. 

A bag of library books, most about history, sat next to her recliner. Her typical day at the nursing home starts with watching the news.

“I like to see what’s happening in the world,” Meyer said. 

Asked why voting still felt important, Meyer responded: “Everything a politician does, it’s going to affect everybody, including me, even though I’m not out working or anything else. But yes, I think it’s very, very important, and I want to know what’s going on. … I got children here, I got grandchildren here. I got great grandchildren here, it’s going to make a difference.”

– Addie Costello

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Hitch a ride to your polling place

Need a ride to the polls? Here are a few options.

• The Wisconsin Disability Vote Coalition has put together lists of statewide transportation resources for voters.
• In Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine, Souls to the Polls is offering free, round-trip rides to polling locations. Call their hotline at 414-742-1060 to book a ride.
• Using the code VOTE24, 50% off of a ride to a polling location, up to a maximum of $10, will be covered by rideshare company Lyft. Rival Uber offers the same discount, accessible through the “Go Vote” option in the Uber mobile app. Additionally, e-scooter company Lime will be offering free rides of up to 30 minutes to a polling location in Milwaukee.

– Julius Shieh

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Polls open in Wisconsin

It’s Election Day — and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Voters here in Wisconsin will help pick the next president, choose a U.S. senator, send eight people to the U.S. House, elect state representatives and senators, decide whether to amend the state constitution and weigh in on scores of local ballot referendums.

Polls open at 7 a.m. in Wisconsin and close at 8 p.m. If you are still in line at 8 p.m. and haven’t yet had a chance to vote, stay in line. You will still be able to cast a ballot.

Even though the polls close at 8 p.m. here, expect it to be at least a few hours — and possibly longer — to get definitive unofficial results. Wisconsin is one of seven battleground states that will determine the outcome of the election. Here’s when polls close in the other six, but just like here, don’t expect to know who won each of these states right away.

All times listed in Central Standard Time: 

• Arizona: 8 p.m.
• Georgia: 6 p.m.
• Michigan: 7 p.m.
• Nevada: 9 p.m.
• North Carolina: 6:30 p.m.
• Pennsylvania: 7 p.m.

If someone declares victory shortly after polls close — especially in the presidential election — be extremely skeptical. In 2020 former President Donald Trump declared victory while millions of votes still needed to be counted. And, as has been well documented, President Joe Biden won that election. Trump could once again prematurely — and potentially baselessly — claim victory again this year, with some members of his orbit urging the former president to address voters even earlier on election night than in 2020.

It’s important to remember that the results reported on election night are unofficial. At Wisconsin Watch, we look to the Associated Press and other reputable news organizations for our race calls. 

The vote counting process will take time and varies by municipality in Wisconsin. Local election officials pick where absentee ballots are counted.

In most places, including Madison, absentee ballots that have been cast will be distributed to the polling location across the city where a voter would have cast a ballot in person to be tabulated throughout the day. In others, like Milwaukee and Green Bay, absentee votes are tallied in a central location.

Counting votes takes time. When counting absentee ballots, poll workers have to announce who cast a ballot, check the voter’s name off a poll list, open the ballot envelope, unpack the ballot and feed it into a tabulator, per the Journal Sentinel.

However, there are fewer absentee ballots this year than in 2020, which could help speed up election night returns. Election officials in Milwaukee are predicting that tabulation will be faster this year than in 2020, but still cautioned it will be a late night.

Finally, control of the Assembly is up for grabs, something that could upend the status quo of Wisconsin politics. Read more about the races that could determine which party wins a majority here. 

– Jack Kelly

6 a.m.

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