Salem Lakes Village Clerk Shannon Hahn issued the following news release addressing common concerns about showing voter participation at myvote.wi.gov that her office has been fielding.
Though Hahn addressed this to Salem Lakes voters, it holds true for other local municipalities too so you might give it a look if you too have questions about how voter participation is recorded, even if you do not live in Salem Lakes.
Here’s is Hahn’s information:
Many voters in Salem Lakes are concerned that their vote did not count at the General Election held on November 3, 2020. Voters are referring to the state’s website myvote.wi.gov. and not seeing their voter participation there. Please see the explanation below.
A voter’s “vote” is recorded as soon as the voter (or in the case of absentee voters, an election inspector) puts the ballot into the ballot scanner on election day. It’s the votes from those ballots that are tabulated and sent to Kenosha County on election night for release to the public.
On the other hand, recording an individual voter’s “participation” in an election – the fact that a voter voted — is a manual process for most municipalities in Wisconsin. The poll books list a bar code for each
voter. If a voter number is written next to that bar code, that bar code is scanned, one-by-one, into the state election database. Additionally, each election day registration is manually keyed into the same database.State statute allows municipal clerks 45 days from the date of a general election to get all of this done. This is stated on the myvote.wi.gov website: “Clerks have begun recording election participation, but it may take up to 45 days for this process to be completed.”
The Salem Lakes Clerk’s Office will be working on this task most afternoons for the next several weeks. You are welcome to see the process in person at the Village Hall.
Some Salem Lakes voters are also concerned that the MyVote website says they voted absentee when they voted early in-person. “Early” voting is not the correct official term, although everyone uses it. It is actually called in-person absentee voting. The MyVote website will reflect that you voted absentee because that’s what you actually did.
We appreciate your patience during this very busy time.
