Record early voting could point to a new trend

RACINE, Wis. — Record numbers for early voting could point to a change in the way people are choosing to vote.

Absentee and early ballots have come flooding in at polling locations across Wisconsin. The City of Racine has several different polling locations and city officials say all of them have been busy since last week.

Tara McMenamin is the City Clerk for Racine. She says the more than 7,000 ballots that have come in through mail-in ballots and in-person early voting — representing nearly quarter of the city’s more than 30,000 registered voters. She says this could point to a shift in the way people prefer to vote in a post pandemic world.

McMenamin says, “A lot more people know about absentee ballots — are requesting them, how to return them — so the worlds changed a little bit since we had a presidential election the last round.” She adds the increase in early and absentee voting can go a long way to keeping lines down on election day. She says she encourages people to get line for in for early voting as a good way to balance out long lines on election day.

“Hopefully we can keep that line down as we move voters through but we also would like to see a large turnout. We do anticipate, as we get a little bit closer to election day, the lines will just get continuously a little bit longer.”

McMenamin says absentee ballots can be tracked online after they are mailed out and voters will see exactly when their ballot was checked in.

In-person early voting in Racine goes through Friday at 5 pm. The city has alternating polling places that can be tracked on a calendar on a website for Racine voters.