Muskego Absentees Send Elections into Overtime

Muskego had turned out strong weeks before the polls opened as absentees and again on election day, posting an approximate 90 percent overall turnout.

A daylong tour of the seven polling locations in the city saw much of the same story: early heavy turnout with voters willing to wait in long lines before the polls opened, and some even lining up an hour or more to get a good place in line. Weather and road construction also didn't seem to deter voters from getting to the polls either, and few problems were reported.

By 10 a.m., lines dwindled, but it was also obvious that the majority of registered voters had already cast ballots; an average of 60 percent turnout was reported at most polling locations. By 2 p.m., that number would exceed 70 percent, ending the day at 90 percent or more.

Although Barack Obama would claim Wisconsin as well as GOP Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan kept his job in the 1st Congressional District. While the race in electoral vote terms was not as close as some pundits had thought, the popular vote showed a much narrower margin of victory for Obama (with 76 percent reported at midnight Wednesday, Obama had 50,585,681 to Romney's 50,465,630).

The nearly 7,000 absentee ballots that were received at the clerk's office were a huge undertaking for election workers at City Hall. Each ballot had to be opened from a sealed envelope, inspected and then cast, district by district. At 2 p.m., only 1,500 had been cast, leading City Administrator Sharon Mueller to say, "we're going to be here for a while."

As of close of polls, the counting was still going on, with about 60 percent of the absentee ballots being cast.

Additional state results for legislative races as well as the can be found here.

Once we receive the final counts from Muskego, we will update you.