Brookfield could be one of a handful of municipalities to participate in a trial early voting program for next spring's elections, pending a decision by the state's Government Accountability Board in December.
After the 2008 fall elections, the state started studying early voting, and the Government Accountability Board this summer held a series of listening sessions with county and municipal clerks and members of the public to gather input.
The board is looking at three options: creating regional early voting districts, allowing municipalities to opt into on-site early voting as desired or streamlining the absentee voting process.
In other states, early voting starts anywhere from 45 to 15 days before an election and ends five to three days before the election. The proposal for Wisconsin would be to start early voting 20 days before the election and end it at least three days before the election. Currently, Wisconsin offers absentee voting, which can begin up to 30 days prior to an election and continues until the day prior, and requires an application for a ballot. Early voting would not have such a requirement.
Brookfield City Clerk Kris Schmidt said part of the reason the city volunteered for a pilot program was because Brookfield dealt with so many absentee ballots during the 2008 election.
Nearly 9,000 Brookfield voters cast absentee ballots, with about 2,000 of those coming in the Friday and Monday before the election, Schmidt said. That means extra work for poll workers who would usually be focusing on Election Day duties.
"I do think that we really need to take a look at some changes," Schmidt said.
She would like to see the deadline for absentee voting pushed back to the Thursday before Election Day, giving clerks more time to process ballots and reducing concerns about potential problems.
"It's not about fraud, it's about errors," she said. "When you back up your (ballots) to the two days before election, you're going to have errors."
Still, Schmidt said, the only two races that ever would cause a deluge of absentee ballots are the races for governor and president.
The GAB will make a recommendation about early voting in December.
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