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Two students walk in front of a vote sign with academic buildings in the background.
Students walk out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union during the spring election April 7, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

In case you haven’t heard, it’s Election Day, and the stakes are high.

(You always hear that, right? But it’s true!)

Sure, there’s no presidential or even a U.S. Senate contest. But Wisconsin voters will choose our next governor, state senators and representatives, members of Congress — and several other statewide officials, including attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer. Those elections will shape the balance of power in state and federal government.

Meanwhile, voters will answer three questions about amending the state constitution.

For a full overview of storylines to watch, Brittany Carloni, Audrey Lopez-Stane and Zoey Elwood have you covered here.

We have lots more information in our comprehensive voter guide, which tells you what’s on your ballot, what candidates are promising (those who responded to us, at least) and who’s funding their campaigns.

Wisconsin Watch will report updates throughout the day and night from reporters stationed across the state.

Polls in Wisconsin open at 7 a.m. 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.

So when can you expect to know who’s won? Don’t plan on an early night.

After the polls close, expect a wait of at least a few hours — and possibly longer — for a clear picture of the results.

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 results won’t become official until election officials complete the canvass and certification process.

The vote-counting process takes time and varies by municipality in Wisconsin. Local election officials decide where absentee ballots are counted.

In most places, including Madison, absentee ballots are distributed to the polling places where voters would have cast their ballots in person. There, poll workers tabulate them 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.

Early voting, particularly in-person voting, is up this year compared with the 2022 midterms. There were 741,795 mail-in ballots returned and 318,130 in-person early votes cast in 2022. This year, there have been 777,739 mail-in ballots returned and 463,491 in-person early votes as of Monday.

Here are some more links that may be of interest:

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Jim Malewitz oversees Wisconsin Watch's statewide newsroom from Madison. He joined the organization in 2019, initially as investigations editor. He has worked almost exclusively in nonprofit, public affairs journalism. He previously reported for Bridge Magazine, the Texas Tribune and Stateline. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and POLITICO Magazine. Jim holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Grinnell College and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa. He was the former board president of the nonprofit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, which is now a division of Investigate Midwest.