GREEN BAY (WLUK) — Thousands of votes have already been cast in this year’s presidential election in Wisconsin, so much so that election officials were taken by surprise.

“I think the clerks were a little surprised by the turnout. When you look at the numbers historically, election officials, we often have to look at history in our preparation and planning, right? What was the voting behavior? Have people used the postal service, absent in person? Did they vote on Election Day?” said Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

And as we’ve seen over the past five years, that historical data hasn’t been helpful for planning. Everything still went very smoothly, but I think our local election officials were surprised by the high number of in-person absences.

In Green Bay, early voting will continue throughout the weekend, from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday and 9 a.m. to noon on Sunday.

But officials statewide are already saying in-person absentee voting has an edge in the 2020 presidential election.

Wolfe says the numbers during the first three days of in-person absenteeism were nearly 40% ahead of the same time frame for the same voting method in 2020, although that number has declined slightly since then.

Wolfe speculates that awareness of these voting methods has increased in recent years, which may have led to the continued spike.

As of Friday morning, 645,190 mail-in ballots have been requested statewide, and 537,645 have been returned.

A total of 80,183 in-person absentee ballots have also been returned.

In Green Bay, of the 8,975 in-person voting applications received since Oct. 23, 8,510 have cast ballots.

Wolfe adds that this weekend will likely change the numbers, as the Friday before the 2020 election was the busiest day for in-person absentee voting in the state.

In-person absentee voting in Green Bay was busiest on Oct. 25 and 29, although voting is still open Friday evening until 8 p.m.

Currently, 258,000 more in-person ballots have been cast compared to the same time frame in the 2020 election, which is a 48% increase.

The time for voters to mail in their ballots has now passed, as they will not be present on election night at 8 p.m.

Those who still have to hand in their ballot paper can deposit it in the mailbox of your municipality before 8 p.m. on November 5, if they use it, or hand it in at the clerk’s office.

Those who still want to register to vote will have to wait until Election Day, as voters cannot register on the Saturday, Sunday or Monday before the election. However, you can register at the polling station on Tuesday, provided you bring proof of address.