By Shereen Siewert
Local elections officials are continuing to count ballots well into the evening on Tuesday, said Megan Wolfe, Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator, with official results coming later.
Wolfe, in a 9 p.m. media call, thanked local elections officials for a smooth election day and said workers have a long night ahead of them, possibly counting ballots into the morning hours on Wednesday.
“Voting today went well; it went very well,” Wolfe said. “Workers must keep counting until the job is done right.”
Wolfe said unofficial results will be created on Tuesday from polling places in each location. Once unofficial results are sent to the county, the county has two hours to post those results to the county’s website, Wolfe said.
In the next step, the WEC maintains a list of those counties. Central absentee counts are performed in 39 central locations. The unofficial results from counties do not include absentee votes, Wolfe said.
Wolfe said there were no reported threats or violence at any polling place statewide.
Nationwide, more than 100 million ballots were cast early, a total that represents 74.3 percent of the total turnout in the 2016 election. High numbers of early votes could mean it might take longer to get results.
Elections officials will provide an additional media update Wednesday morning.
