The demand for early, in-person voting continued to create slowdowns Thursday with the computer system used to print absentee ballot envelope labels, the Elections Commission says.
The commission initially reported computer problems on Tuesday after at least 97,436 people cast absentee ballots in person during the first day they could do so. That was a significant spike from the 79,774 cast on the first day of early voting four years ago.
The latest update from the commission showed another 94,433 people cast ballots in person Wednesday, and the agency reported computer issues on both days with the WisVote website.
The commission said it continued to receive reports Thursday from local officials that they were experiencing delays with the system used to print labels for absentee ballot envelopes.
Commission Chair Ann Jacobson tweeted the agency was still working to “figure out the label printer lag issue” with the current solution to reboot multiple times during the day.
“This has kept things on track and stickers are being printed!” Jacobson posted on X. “We are still investigating why this is happening and hope to have a permanent fix soon. FYI – the reboots take only a matter of a few minutes so they shouldn’t interrupt voting. We will keep you informed!!”
The agency said it was still trying to pinpoint the issue, though there was no reason to believe it was caused by a cyberattack.
The commission has advised clerks if they continue experiencing printing delays to hand-write the absentee information on the outside of the envelope. That had been the normal process prior to 2020.
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