How your vote gets counted

All ballots are counted on election day. Wisconsin election officials track who voted on election day through meticulously maintained poll books. The poll book is a list of all registered voters assigned to that polling place. In Wisconsin, voters may also register to vote at the polls on election day.  Every voter is verified at the poll book check-in table by publicly stating their name and address and providing photo ID. If the voter is registered and provides valid photo ID, the voter will sign the poll book and be issued a ballot. Your vote is private, so no identifying information is applied to the ballot. Voters then mark the ballot and place the ballot in the tabulator where it is counted towards the election results.

Absentee ballots are also processed on election day. Election inspectors first verify the absentee ballot envelope meets all requirements, including the presence of a voter signature, witness signature, and witness address. If all requirements are met, election inspectors will open the envelope and place the ballot in the tabulator. These voters are marked with their voter number on the poll book when their votes are counted.  The entire process is open to observation by members of the public.

After the election, local election officials review the poll book that voters signed on election day and manually update the voter registration system with who voted in the election. This process takes time.  After your vote has been recorded in the voter registration system, you can verify by checking the My Voting Activity section under My Voter Info on MyVote. Note that clerks are allowed up to 45 days after a General Election to record this information in the voter registration system by state statute.