Early voting kicks off in key battleground state of Wisconsin

In-person early voting kicked off Tuesday across battleground Wisconsin, with former President Barack Obama and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz hosting a rally in liberal Madison and Republicans holding events to encourage casting a ballot for Donald Trump before Election Day.

Mr Trump lost Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes in 2020, an election that saw unprecedented early and absentee voting due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Republican former president Mr Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are expecting another razor-thin margin in Wisconsin, and both sides are pushing voters to cast their ballots early.

Dozens of voters waited in line outside Milwaukee’s municipal building for the start of early voting at 9am. Hours and locations for early voting varied across the state.

Mr Trump was highly critical of voting by mail in past elections, falsely claiming it was ripe with fraud. But this election, he and his backers are embracing all forms of voting, including by mail and early in-person.

The former president himself encouraged early voting at a rally in Dodge County, Wisconsin, earlier this month.

Wisconsin Republican party chairman Brian Schimming said Monday that the vote-early message from Mr Trump and Republicans this year has been “very clear”.

Mr Schimming even put in a plug for using absentee ballot drop boxes, a method of returning ballots that Mr Trump once opposed and that some Wisconsin Republicans still do.

“We need to avail ourselves of every imaginable way to get votes in,” Mr Schimming said on a press call. “If it’s the difference between getting a vote in, or not getting a vote in, I say to Republicans, ‘Put it in the mailbox or put it in the drop box’.”

Numerous Republican officeholders and candidates planned to cast their ballots on Tuesday.

“You never know when a snowstorm is going to come in November in Wisconsin,” said US Representative Bryan Steil, who represents south-eastern Wisconsin and plans to vote on Tuesday.

“It’s a great opportunity while the weather’s nice to get out to your local office and cast your vote and have that vote banked.”

Mr Obama and Mr Walz, the governor of neighbouring Minnesota, scheduled an early voting rally in the Democratic stronghold of Madison. Ms Harris held a rally at the same venue last month, attracting more than 10,000 people.

Mr Obama was headed to neighbouring Michigan later Tuesday, among the several stops the former president is making in battleground states to encourage early voting.

Ms Harris has been spending a lot of time in the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in the final weeks of the campaign, including stops in Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was in the conservative Milwaukee suburbs on Sunday.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party was also staging events across Wisconsin to encourage early voting, as were liberal advocacy groups including Souls to the Polls, a Milwaukee-based organisation that targets Black voters.

That is a key demographic for Democrats in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city and also the source of the highest number of Democratic votes.

Early voting in Wisconsin began Tuesday and runs until November 3. However, locations and times of early voting vary across the state. Voters do not need to give a reason for voting absentee.

Ballots were sent by mail in late September, but beginning on Tuesday, voters can request one at designated voting locations and cast their ballot in person.

As of Friday, more than 305,000 absentee ballots had already been returned in Wisconsin.

Voters can continue to return them by mail, in person or at absentee ballot drop boxes in communities where those are available.

All absentee ballots must be received by the time polls close at 8pm on Election Day.