Early in-person voting in Wisconsin begins Tuesday

Voting booths set up at Madison, Wisconsin's Hawthorne Library on Election Day 2022. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)In-person absentee voting for Wisconsin’s elections begins on Tuesday, with hours and locations varying by municipality.  Elections officials have said ahead of the midterms that they expect early voting to be especially popular this year as concerns mount about the speed and reliability of sending absentee ballots through the U.S. postal system.  Data from the Wisconsin Elections Commission shows that as of Monday morning, 364,888 absentee ballots have already been requested and 173,164 of those have been returned. Those numbers lag the 2022 election when 438,673 absentee ballots had been requested and 195,287 had been returned by the same point.  WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the early numbers suggest a surge in popularity for early voting.  “Although voter behaviors are difficult to forecast, the data so far indicates that local clerks should prepare f