Over 37,000 people voted early in City of Madison for the 2018 midterm elections, which is more than four times more than in 2014.
On Sunday, 626 people voted on the last day of in-person absentee voting, bringing the total to 37,314 Madison voters who had filled out in-person absentee ballots over a seven-week period. Those total numbers more than quadrupled the number of early voters in the 2014 elections, which was 8,811.
Those numbers were less than the 57,260 who voted early in the 2016 presidential election. However, midterm elections historically see significantly lower voter turnout than presidential elections.
Starting in 2016, municipalities could set up multiple absentee voting locations instead of just at the clerkâs office. Madison did just that creating 16 voting locations including all of the Madison public libraries, the UW Memorial Union, UW Union South, UW-Madison Student Activity Center and Edgewood College.
A big thank you to @madisonlibrary, Streets East, @UWMadison and @EdgewoodCollege for helping facilitate the right to vote! Although the lines grew longer each day this past week, we saw nothing like the three-hour lines we used to see downtown for fall elections. For comparison: pic.twitter.com/ibJN22EhPJ
— Madison WI Clerk (@MadisonWIClerk) November 5, 2018
There is no in-person absentee voting today. Election day is Tuesday and polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Click here to find your polling place.
