How Long Will Vote Counting Take In Wisconsin: Presidential Race

Polls have closed in Wisconsin in the Nov.3 general election, with Tuesday being the culmination of days of early and absentee voting — a shift seen across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With voting now officially over, Wisconsinites and voters across the country are waiting to see who wins the state's 10 electoral college votes: Republican President Donald J. Trump or Democratic challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden. As of Tuesday, at least xxx voters in Wisconsin had voted early, according to the U.S. Elections Project.

In Wisconsin, mail-in ballots are not allowed to be counted prior to Election Day and all ballots must be counted until the count is complete, meaning clerks will be working late into the night.

A ruling from the Supreme Court in the week before Election Day also required all mail-in ballots to be received by 8 p.m. Tuesday, scrapping a ruling from a lower court that would have allowed mail-in ballots to be counted if they were received up to six days after Tuesday. Voters in Wisconsin were urged to hand deliver their ballots to ensure they would be counted.

What’s more, for any counties that have municipalities which use a central count facility to process absentee ballots, they may report votes being fully counted after receiving only in-person votes from polling places, the Wisconsin Election Commission warned. In its guidance, the commission said its essential for any counties that have absentee votes coming in from a central count facility to specify on its website that officials are awaiting absentee ballots.

It's unclear exactly when the unofficial vote count will be complete but Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has said he expects to know the results "hopefully that night and maybe at the latest the very next day."

Of course it's not just the presidential election results that residents across the Badger State are awaiting.

All 99 members of the Wisconsin State Assembly and 16 State Senate seats were on the ballot in the 2020 election. Republicans have a majority on both chambers. All eight of Wisconsin's Congressional districts were also on the ballot.