Somers will count all absentee ballots in public on Election Day, starting at 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, at Village Hall.
The Municipal Board of Absentee Ballot Canvassers will process the ballots in the Fire Department Training Room at 7511 12th Street, according to an official notice posted by the Village/Town of Somers on Monday, Oct. 26. Clerk/Treasurer Wendy Burnette signed the notice.
The count is open to the public.
The central count is separate from in-person voting at individual polling places. Absentee ballots returned to the municipal clerk's office are gathered and processed at one location rather than distributed to each ward's polling site.
The centralized count is conducted under Wisconsin Statute § 7.52(1)(a), which allows municipalities to process absentee ballots at a single location rather than at individual polling places. The law also establishes requirements for public notice and access to the count.
Public access
Wisconsin law requires municipalities that use a central counting location for absentee ballots to notify the public at least 48 hours in advance, according to a Yale Law School analysis of the statute published in October 2020. The analysis also noted that the public has the same right to access a central absentee ballot count as it does at a polling location.
Burnette's notice did not include the number of absentee ballots requested or returned so far in Somers. The Yale analysis noted that under Wis. Stat. § 7.52(1)(c), the municipal clerk must post the number of mail-in ballots sent out and received by the close of polls on Election Day.
Equipment testing
The village also scheduled a public test of its DS200 ballot tabulation machines and Express Vote electronic ballot marking devices for Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 8:30 a.m. in the conference room at Village Hall. Both the equipment test and the Nov. 3 absentee ballot count take place at the same address: 7511 12th Street.
The full central count notice is available on the village's website. Polls open at 7 a.m. on Nov. 3, with the absentee ballot count beginning 15 minutes later in the Fire Department Training Room.