In more election news, they should just count their ballots faster.
That's the sentiment of the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader in explaining how his chamber
does not have the votes to pass a bill that would allow municipalities to count absentee
ballots the day before an election and require it in Milwaukee, especially since the pandemic
early absentee voting has been on the rise, leaving election clerks sometimes swamped
with opening envelopes well into the night.
That can cause swings and results like what happened in 2020 when Donald Trump falsely
claimed vote dumping in Milwaukee.
When election clerks take on this, we turn to Lisa Tullofson in Rock County, and thanks
very much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
What kind of increases have you seen in absentee voting?
So in 2020, we had over 60% of our population voted absentee.
Prior to that, it was 20 to 25%.
It has not gone down to that rate of 20, 25%.
I'm expecting to see a lot more in this coming up election and in November.
We might not reach 60%, but it's going to be definitely higher than in the past.
So what do those kinds of numbers mean on election day as far as counting the results?
So absentee ballots take a lot more time to process.
You're having two people review everything.
You have to open it.
You have to log it.
There's a whole process that's an extra step throughout.
And all of that takes time.
And you don't want anyone to rush.
You want them to be accurate as possible.
When people come in to vote in person, they're doing all that work for you.
They sign the poll book.
They give them a number.
They get their ballot.
They put it in the machine on election day.
If we're doing your absentee, you have two people doing all that work for that voter.
It takes a lot of time.
And so kind of the increase and the crush of this is not just difficult for locations
like Milwaukee.
No, it increases for everyone.
Everyone either has more poll workers on.
We had municipalities buy extra machines just to handle that extra volume to make sure
that they could get them processed.
You can't expect something that takes longer to do in the same amount of time that you
already have.
You can't double it.
Double your time.
It doesn't work.
What would it mean then to be able to count absentee ballots the day before the election?
So there's a couple of advantages is that you can get those ballots done.
And you can take your time to make sure everything's processed and double checked.
Then all you would have left to do are the remaining or just the ones that come in on
election day.
And then you can you can focus on taking care of those voters that come into the polls on
election day.
But the results coming in sooner is the biggest plus.
If you can get everything done as close to eight o'clock as possible, all the results
come in early.
There's not as much confusion and it's a lot clearer as to the results before those many,
many people go to bed before it's finished on election night.
Can you imagine how there would be any issue with election integrity if these ballots were
counted the day before?
There are so many security pieces in this and in our whole system.
We lock everything down their security seals.
Everything has a check and balance throughout the whole system.
It's in our system now.
It's in place with this new bill.
This would I don't see that as being the issue.
Every ballot, every absentee ballot is tracked the entire way through the system when it's
issued, when it's mailed, when it's received, when it's counted.
Everything is tracked.
So interestingly, the Republican Party of Wisconsin is now encouraging early absentee
voting, calling it banking your vote.
Do you expect there to be even more interest in this for the November election because
of messaging like that?
Absolutely.
I am definitely ordering more absentee ballots, so we're ready to go.
What else are clerks kind of dealing with this election cycle?
We are looking at all different things.
You're looking at AI.
What happens if we get some, the artificial intelligence could get some messaging that
could be confusing?
We are looking at safety protocols we've never looked at before to make sure everything is
safe for our voters and our poll workers.
There's a lot of things in the background we are prepping for to make sure we're ready.
One of those kinds of staffing protocols that you've never done before that you're now doing?
There's lots of contingency plans, lots of contingency plans.
And some of them I don't like to talk about so everyone knows what they are, but making
sure that if we need to move, if we need to secure something differently, there's pieces
there that we are definitely prepping for to make sure we're ready.
What about staffing?
Is that an issue?
I mean, it's an issue for everyone everywhere, right?
But is it an issue for you and other clerks?
I don't see it right now, but I have a feeling as we go closer to November and we see a lot
more absentee ballots, we're going to need more staff.
And as everywhere we're having trouble hiring, the poll workers, we need more people to step
forward to help.
So anyone who can think about it, become a poll worker.
More absenteeism means more work, more checks and balances that need to go through every
one of those absentee ballots.
All right.
Well, we wish you and others luck.
Lisa Thompson, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Oh, I said, I feel like I misspoke.
I feel like I said, staffing protocols, I meant to say safety or security, but you answered
it.
It's the right way.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
Do we need?
Do you need to retake anything?
Are you good?
I think we're good.
We better let you go.
You are a busy woman.
Thank you.
Keep going.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Sure.
Marissa, do you remember, did I misspeak?