How do I vote by mail or early in Wisconsin in 2026?

In-person absentee voting can start no earlier than Tuesday October 20 and end no later than Sunday November 1, 2026, with hours set by each municipality. This is sometimes called early voting. You vote at a location your municipal clerk designates, not your Election Day polling place.

Absentee requests by mail or online must be received by 5 p.m. on Thursday October 29, 2026. Your completed ballot must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted. A postmark is not enough.

Municipal clerks may transmit absentee ballots to military and permanent overseas voters by mail, fax, or email, and the state sends ballots to these voters no later than 47 days before a federal election.

Wisconsin voters who are in the military, live permanently overseas, or are classified as confidential electors are not required to present a photo ID to vote absentee. Voters who are indefinitely confined or who live in a nursing home or care facility do not have to present a photo ID to receive and cast an absentee ballot. Other absentee rules, such as the certificate and witness requirements, still apply.

On July 11, 2024, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in Rise, Inc. v. Wisconsin Elections Commission that an absentee ballot must be counted if the witness certificate contains enough address information to identify a location where the witness can be reached, rejecting a rigid requirement for street number, street name, and municipality. The decision adopted a flexible, clerk-reasonableness standard for witness addresses.

On July 5, 2024, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in Priorities USA v. Wisconsin Elections Commission that municipal clerks may lawfully use secure absentee ballot drop boxes, overturning the court's 2022 decision that had banned them. Whether to offer drop boxes is entirely at each municipal clerk's discretion. Clerks are not required to use them, and the municipal governing body does not designate drop box locations.

County boards of canvassers complete their canvass no later than 14 days after the election, November 17. The statewide canvass is complete by the first day of December. The chair of the Elections Commission must certify the results by December 1, 2026, though certificates issue only after the recount-petition window closes.