What’s Happening with Mail-In Ballots in Wisconsin?

• MIT and Stanford researchers take a deep dive into Wisconsin’s mail-in ballot data to understand the trends in requests, returns, and demographics breakdown.
• In Wisconsin, 2020 has seen a more than 60x increase in mail-in ballot requests across the state relative to 2016. As of this past week, more than 1.4 million mail ballots had been requested, compared to 23,700 in 2016.
• The number of mail in requests has remained constant at roughly 75,000 each week for the last three weeks.
• Roughly 73% of mail in ballots have been returned, bringing the total number to 1,048,770; returns peaked early in October and have declined since, leaving 390,080 ballots that have not yet been returned.
• In the week of October 18 alone, 28,881 mail ballots were requested and 179,530 were returned.
• The return rate by race has been relatively constant among White voters, Black voters, and voters of other races.

With the election a few days away, researchers from the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project analyzed the mail-in voting trends across the State of Wisconsin, another heated battleground for candidates.

As of this past week, more than 1.4 million mail ballots had been requested across Wisconsin, compared to 23,700 in 2016 — this is a more than 60x increase in mail ballot requests from the 2016 election.

The distribution of ballot returns by race has been relatively constant: 73% of ballots requested by White voters have been returned, 68% of ballots requested by Black voters have been returned, and 69% of ballots requested by voters of other races have been returned.

Overall, 390,080 ballots have not yet been returned. The breakdown of mail ballots still needing to be returned is 312,240 ballots for White voter requests, 30,794 ballots for Black voter requests, and 51,250 ballots for requests by voters of other races.

For a visual breakdown of the data and analysis, visit the full report here.