About 32% of Milwaukee voters turned out Tuesday. Why that's not a predictor for November.

Milwaukee's 32% turnout among registered voters on Tuesday was lower than the city's top election official had hoped, but she doesn't consider it a sign of likely turnout come November.

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall chalked up the turnout, which she had hoped would exceed 50%, to the races and issues on the ballot. The presidential primaries for Republicans and Democrats were already decided, the races for Milwaukee mayor and county executive were not highly competitive, and the two state election referendum questions on the ballot were not as easy galvanizing as issues like abortion or guns.

"There wasn’t any big driver where anything felt like it was on the line for a significant number of voters," she said. "I don't think that that's necessarily going to be the case when we go into November."

The Nov. 5 election is expected to be a rematch between former Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden, who unseated Trump in November 2020.

Milwaukee turnout can have a key impact in statewide elections for Democrats, who count on the party's urban stronghold to help offset Republican turnout in more rural areas of the state.

More than 85,000 ballots cast in Milwaukee in Tuesday's election

In Tuesday's election, 85,516 ballots were cast. The city had 270,289 registered voters, not including same-day registrations, Woodall said.

Of those, 26,404 were absentee ballots that were processed at the city's central count location, 1901 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

"Central count" in Milwaukee and other municipalities across the state refers to a single location where that community's absentee ballot results are tallied. In Milwaukee County, eight communities, including the city of Milwaukee, use a central count location.

Milwaukee absentee results delivered to Milwaukee County Courthouse by 10 p.m.

City officials arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse by 10 p.m. with flash drives of absentee ballot results.

The city's absentee ballot results were published on the Milwaukee County Clerk's website about 11 p.m.

Milwaukee Election Commission has budgeted for 100,000 absentee ballots for November election

Woodall has budgeted for about 100,000 absentee ballots for November's election, the bulk of which she expects to be used during early in-person voting.

She expected about 60,000 early in-person absentee voters, including people who return their already-completed absentee ballots to the early voting locations, plus 40,000 or so absentee ballots returned in the mail.

In the coronavirus pandemic in November 2020, she said 169,519 voters in Milwaukee cast absentee ballots while 78,176 went to the polls on election day.

The city has received grants, one for election equipment, from Washington, D.C., nonprofit Cities Forward. That grant will be used to purchase two high-speed machines known as "tabulators" for counting absentee ballots, 50 ExpressVote machines where voters use a touch screen to mark their ballots, cell phones for staff, security cameras and other equipment.

Woodall also said she was hoping the state Supreme Court would allow the return of absentee ballot drop boxes, which she expected would lead to higher return rates.

The court's new liberal majority last month agreed to hear a challenge to the state's absentee ballot drop box ban, which had gone into place under a July 2022 ruling by the then-conservative-controlled court. Oral arguments are scheduled for May 13.

She said if drop boxes do come back, she would plan to close them likely by 5 p.m. on election day because of the flood of ballots that came in at the last minute when they were open until 7:30 p.m. in 2020, further delaying reporting of the results.

"I'm hopeful the drop boxes will come back and I'm hopeful we can come up with a solution that maximizes their usage but without making us go late, late into the night," she said.

In Wisconsin, clerks cannot start processing absentee ballots until 7 a.m. on election day. For cities like Milwaukee that use separate central count facilities to process absentee ballots, starting on election day can delay the reporting of absentee results until late into the night.

And, in a city the size of Milwaukee, that can mean election results change when the absentee ballot results are reported.

That has fueled conspiracy theories about "ballot dumps" in the city in the middle of the night, a claim amplified by Trump to falsely imply his 2020 loss in the state was the result of illegal votes that were cast.

A bipartisan bill that would have allowed election clerks to start processing absentee ballots the day before Election Day and finish counting earlier died in the Republican-controlled state Senate earlier this year.

27 absentee voters returned incorrect ballots in four wards that experienced errors

In the weeks before the election, Election Commission workers accidentally sent 237 Milwaukee voters across four voting wards ballots meant for a ward other than their own.

The Election Commission ultimately sent correct ballots to affected voters and tried to reach them to explain what had happened, including via phone and door-to-door outreach, Woodall said.

Still, she said, 27 of those voters returned the initial, incorrect ballot they had received. That meant they did not get to vote in their district's races for the Milwaukee Common Council and Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.

"They should have had an opportunity to choose a candidate, and they did not," she said.

• 96 ballots in Ward 236, of which six incorrect ballots were returned.

• 69 ballots in Ward 119, of which nine incorrect ballots were returned.

• 53 ballots in Ward 115, of which 11 incorrect ballots were returned.

• 19 ballots in Ward 116, of which one incorrect ballot was returned.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 32% Milwaukee turnout Tuesday not a predictor for November