Vote here in sign outside a Milwaukee polling place. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

As part of the America Amplified project, WPR is one of dozens of public radio stations that speak directly to voters and answer their questions.

Some voters had questions about how elections were conducted in Wisconsin and what measures were in place to ensure election security.

The following answers are compiled from sources including the Wisconsin Elections CommissionWisconsin laws and interviews with current and former Wisconsin employees.

What is the deadline for mail-in or mail-in ballots to be received to be counted?

Absentee ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

It’s probably too late to send in your ballot in time for November 5, but you have other options for returning it, including to your local clerk’s office, voting place or the place where postal ballots are counted.

In some communities, drop boxes are also available to return absentee ballots.

Click here to track the status of your absentee ballot.

How can election officials ensure that voter rolls are up to date so that people who are not eligible to vote do not vote?

Wisconsin clerks use a statewide voter registration database called WisVote. Clerks obtain information from the Social Security Administration, which allows them to flag voters who may be deceased and need to have their voter registration deactivated.

Clerks also receive daily updates from Wisconsin Department of Corrections on people who have been convicted of crimes. People convicted of felonies cannot vote in Wisconsin while they are actively serving their sentence. But once these Wisconsin residents are longer “on paper” — that is, they have completed their sentences, including parole or extended supervision — they are allowed to re-enroll on the electoral lists.

Additionally, Wisconsin participates in an interstate agreement called the Electronic Registration Information Center, which allows election officials to compare voter registration to that of other states.

“This helps ensure accuracy by sharing data on voters who may have moved or registered in other states,” said Sam LiEberta former Shorewood Hills employee who now works as Director of the nonprofit All Voting is Local in Wisconsin.

You can click here to check if you are registered to vote in Wisconsin. Wisconsin offers same-day voter registration, which means you have until the polls close at 8 p.m. on election day to register on the electoral roll.

A sign is placed outside a polling location on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, at the Majestic Theater in Madison, Wisconsin. Angela Major/WPR

What type of software/hardware is used to count ballots? Will they also be counted by hand?

In Wisconsin, most ballots are counted electronically using machines called tabulators. Wisconsin local elections officials can choose from a list of equipment approved and tested by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, as well as the United States Election Assistance Commission.

Studies have shown using machines to count ballots is more accurate than manual counting. Electronic tabulation is also much less time.

“Humans make mistakes, and tired humans make mistakes,” the Sun Prairie clerk said. Elena Hilbywho runs the Wisconsin Association of Municipal Clerks. “The machines are quite complete and can be audited, which is the case with ours.”

Following a general election, Wisconsin requires officials to conduct an audit that includes a partial hand count. This manual count is carried out in randomly selected localities to confirm that voting machines are working properly.

“I’ve been involved in these audits and I’m just here to tell you that a manual count is much less accurate than an automatic count,” the former Milwaukee Election Commission director said. Claire Woodall said. “The machines are not interrupted. They don’t have side conversations. They don’t suddenly skip voter numbers when you’re sitting there counting and tallying.

An election worker inserts absentee ballots into a voting machine at Lakeview Lutheran Church in north Madison on November 3, 2020. Steven Potter/WPR

What security measures are in place to protect the secrecy of the vote?

Whether you voted or not is generally public record in Wisconsin, but how you voted is private.

No identifying information, such as your name or signature, appears on the ballot itself.

“When you feed your ballot into the tabulator, or when we feed absentee ballots, that tabulator takes a digital photo of each one. And then, of course, we still have the hard copy,” Hilby explained. “And then when we close our polls, all the images are randomized. …So we can see each ballot, but there’s no way to associate it with a specific voter.

When will the results be official? How long does it take?

Election results will not be official until they are certifieda process that can take several weeks.

How do election officials certify election results? What happens if they don’t certify the election results?

Municipal boards of canvassers meet publicly after the election and have until November 11 to verify the results and then certify them.

After the municipalities, certify the results. County boards of canvassers have until Nov. 19 to certify county-level vote totals.

Those results will be sent to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which has until Dec. 1 to certify the statewide results.

Voting rights groups including All Voting Is Local, officials say have the duty to certify the results sought under Wisconsin law.

“This is not the time to debate laws,” Woodall said of certification. “Now is not the time to question Election Day procedures. The investigation is done and confirms accuracy, and then the certification is really just some sort of administrative or ministerial action.

If election officials refused to certify Wisconsin’s results, they could face legal consequences, including court orders to certify, according to analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice.

But Liebert said he didn’t expect that to happen.

“Wisconsin has never had a problem with certification and we don’t plan to start this year,” he said.

Sondra Abraham smiles as she checks into a voting location Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, at the New Glarus Village Hall in New Glarus, Wisconsin. Angela Major/WPR

How can election officials ensure that an absentee or mail-in ballot came from a legitimate voter and has not been tampered with?

In Wisconsin, absentee ballot envelopes have a unique barcode to ensure that someone I can’t vote twice. Once this code is scanned, officials mark the voter in a poll book as having voted.

Postal ballot envelopes must be signed by the voter. They must also be signed by an adult witness who indicates their address on the postal ballot envelope.

In addition to verifying that the information is present, clerks ensure that the envelope does not give the impression that it has been opened and then closed.

“If it looks like it was tampered with, we can’t count it,” Hilby said.

She said ballots that appear to have been tampered with are set aside, so officials can later determine whether or not they should be thrown out.

Sometimes, Hilby said the ballots appear to have been crumpled after going through a mail machine.

“What we usually do is contact our voter and say, ‘Hey, your ballot came back a little mutilated,'” Hilby said.

She explained that election officials sometimes have time to contact the voter with the damaged ballot and ask them to submit a different ballot before the deadline.

Listen to the WPR report

Answering Wisconsin Election Security FAQs was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.