[EL] How Many Absentee Votes Would Normally Be Expected in WI

[Michael Morley]

According to the EAC's 2016 EAVs report, in the 2016 general election, Wisconsin transmitted 158,846 absentee ballots and 139,988 were returned (88%).   Obviously a presidential primary isn't completely comparable, but it may be a helpful data point.

Nationwide, BTW, about 41.7 million absentee ballots were transmitted in that race, and 33.4 million were returned.  That reflects the 80% estimate you referenced.


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From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on behalf of Pildes, Rick <rick.pildes at nyu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 9:23 AM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] How Many Absentee Votes Would Normally Be Expected in WI


I might post on this, but before doing so, I wanted to check a figure with election administrators or others on the list –



My understanding is that election administrators normally expect about 80% of the absentee ballots that are sent out to be returned.



If that’s a correct rule of thumb, how do things look as of now in WI?  There were 1.287 M requests for absentee ballots (I will use that higher figure, rather than the number sent out, which is about 12,000 lower).  80% of that would be 1.03 M, which would be the number of absentee ballots we would then normally expect to be returned.



As of 7.30 am today, 1.02 M absentee ballots have been returned.  That number will continue to grow over the next week, given that these ballots are valid if received by April 13th.



I have not tracked down data on this, but I assume others can tell me whether that 80% figure is roughly correct under normal circumstances.
















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