Source: the Wisconsin Elections Commission's daily absentee ballot reports, which count absentee applications, ballots sent, ballots returned and in-person absentee ballots for all 72 counties and every city, village and town, each morning at 7:30 AM. Past cycles come from the Commission's archived reports for the 2022 and 2024 general elections. Counts are cumulative through the day before each report. Wisconsin has no party registration and its voter list records no race, so there are no party or race splits.
Where 2026 stands
Cumulative ballots by day
Each line is the running total of absentee ballots returned to clerks by days before Election Day. In-person absentee voting, Wisconsin's early voting, can start 14 days before Election Day (Oct 20, 2026) and must end the Sunday before (Nov 1); each municipality sets its own days and hours. All three elections fall on a Tuesday, so the same day count lands on the same weekday. 2022 is the last midterm, 2024 the last presidential election.
Show data table for these charts
Absentee applications, ballots sent and returned
The absentee pipeline for : applications on file, ballots sent and ballots back with the clerk, each cumulative by day. The return rate is ballots returned divided by ballots sent. A voter who votes in-person absentee is issued a ballot and returns it on the spot, so in-person ballots count in all three, and the return rate climbs quickly once early voting opens.
At the same day
Ballots returned per 100,000 registered voters
Absentee ballots returned divided by registered voters in the same county, per 100,000 of them, so counties of very different size can be compared. Each 2026 dot sits beside the same county's 2022 and 2024 figures at the same day, each divided by that year's October 1 registration. Click a row to make that county the geography for every section.
Map: where absentee voting is running ahead
All 72 counties on one scale. Click or tap a county to make it the geography for every section.
Show map data as a table
County curves
Cumulative ballots returned by day in each county, 2026 against 2022 and 2024. The heading shows the change from the same day in 2022, the last midterm. Click a card to make that county the geography for every section.
Counties
2026 against the same day in 2022 and 2024 for every county, and against each cycle's final absentee count. Click a row to make that county the geography for every section. Cells from 1 to 9 show "<10".
Cities, villages and towns
Wisconsin's elections are run by about 1,850 municipal clerks. A municipality that crosses a county line is listed once, under its main county. Cells from 1 to 9 show "<10", and rates are left blank where a count is that small.