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FACT BRIEF

Has there already been more early voting in Wisconsin in 2022 than the last midterm election in 2018?

By Jacob Alabab-Moser
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YES

Wisconsin's early voting turnout for the 2022 midterm elections surpassed that the last midterm election in 2018. As of Nov. 8, 2022, a total of 741,795 people had voted early via mail or in person. That compares to 547,954 who voted early at the same point in 2018 — a 35% increase. The state's most heavily populated counties, Milwaukee and Dane, had the highest number of early voters.

The growth in absentee ballots in Wisconsin mirrors a larger trend of early voting increases in other key battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. 

Fewer Wisconsinites have voted early in 2022 than in the 2020 presidential election. Such presidential contests typically see much larger turnouts than the midterms. And in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged even higher-than-usual absentee voting.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
State of Wisconsin Absentee Ballot Report - November 8, 2022 General Election
State of Wisconsin Absentee ballot report on November 5, 2022 for 2018 general election
CNN Three charts that show the state of pre-election voting in this year’s key states
PBS Wisconsin Wisconsin's 2022 voter registrations up from 2018, absentee ballots down from 2020
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Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.