Early Voting Push in Whitefish Bay Spurs Village Hall to Extend Hours

Cities, towns and villages across Wisconsin are seeing high numbers of voters requesting absentee ballots for next Tuesday's gubernatorial recall election, and Whitefish Bay is no exception.

As of mid-day Tuesday, 8.9 percent of registered voters in Whitefish Bay have requested absentee ballots and 7.2 percent of registered voters have voted, according to numbers provided by the village clerk's office.

"Last week was busy with people walking in," Village Clerk Jen Amerell said Tuesday. "Today has been pretty quiet, but we expect there will be more later today and later in the week."

The state's Goverment Accountability Board has also been tracking absentee ballots through the statewide voter registration system, which includes participation from about one-third of the state's municipalities.

As of noon Tuesday, the voter registration system had tallied 130,391 absentee ballots. The system tracked 68,000 absentee ballots for the May 8 recall primary and 230,744 absentee ballots in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

“The numbers of absentee voters continues to grow,” said Kevin J. Kennedy, director and general counsel of the G.A.B. “There could be many reasons — voter enthusiasm and convenience, plus necessity for those who will be on vacation or away from home as the school year is coming to an end.”

To accommodate the anticipated high absentee turnout, Village Hall has until 5 p.m. through Friday, when in-person absentee voting ends. Mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, and must be received by the clerk by 4 p.m. the Friday after the election.

Voters who request an absentee ballot using a flier they received in the mail should double check the clerk’s mailing address in the event of an error, Kennedy said.