MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Polls will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday for Election Day so election officials can begin processing and counting all absentee and absentee ballots. Wisconsin is one of seven states in the country that are required by law to forego processing ballots before polls open on Election Day.

“Over 1.5 million mail-in ballots will be returned for Tuesday’s election. And you also know that processing mail-in ballots takes time, especially since Wisconsin is one of the few states where colleagues and employees cannot begin processing mail-in ballots until polls open on Election Day,” Wisconsin Elections said Commission Election Officer Meagan Wolfe.

She explained that every absentee and absentee ballot “must be verified, announced, opened and tabulated on Election Day as part of the public election day.” Only from there can the vote be counted.

Wisconsin voter Jonathan Greenberg said he’s not used to having to wait for officials to start processing early ballots.

“I used to live in Florida and they counted all the early votes in advance, so on election night in Florida they just cast all the early votes straight away and then the Election Day results trickled out,” Greenberg said.

Wolfe said the law also requires election officials to complete the counting of all ballots in one session without interruption.

“In Wisconsin, every ballot must be returned for counting by 8 p.m., and once counting begins, counting must continue until it is complete. “So we know they will complete their count in one session because we do not have the legal ability to adjourn the session and reconvene at a later date,” Wolfe said.

Election workers must process and count all ballots, including early voting, within one session on Election Day. Wolfe said the number of ballots in such a tight time frame meant officials could take until the early morning hours after Election Day to finish.

“People shouldn’t be surprised if it takes some time to get unofficial results. Election officials always value accuracy, integrity and transparency over speed, and just because they wait until the wee hours of the morning doesn’t mean something went wrong,” Wolfe said.

Maggie Hutter said she cares about her vote, but after tomorrow’s election she won’t stay up all night waiting for the unofficial results to be released.

“I’m going to order Great Dane nachos because that’s my treat on Election Day. I think the news will definitely be on in our living room and my husband will be watching, but I’m looking for a brain break at the end of the day,” Hutter said.

Greenberg, on the other hand, is expected to stay awake.

“I’m staying until the election,” Greenberg said. “It’s my bedtime tomorrow, so my daughter will be downstairs around 7:45 p.m. and then I’ll go down to look at the results.”

Regardless of how voters choose to spend their night after polls close at 8 p.m., election workers will be hard at work processing and counting every ballot cast in the state this year.

Wolfe wants voters to remember that tomorrow’s results are considered unofficial.

“We understand very well that everyone is eagerly awaiting the results. We need to remind people that the results you see on election nights are completely unofficial. That means they have not been verified or double- or triple-checked through the numerous steps in our law that certify an election,” Wolfe said.

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