GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Wisconsinites are back at the polls for the first of four times in 2026.
The spring primary election is one of the least attended elections due to some counties not having anything on the ballot.
This year is the same, with seven of the 14 in the WFRV viewing area having elections.
Polls opened at 7 a.m., and at Calvary Lutheran, voters in the 31st and 32nd wards had only one item on the ballot: to choose between candidates Pete Borchardt, Jon Schultz and John Vanderleest for the Brown County Supervisor District Ten.
Citywide, more than 1,600 absentee ballots were turned in to City Hall.
“We have been trending — about one-third of our ballots are absentee and about two-thirds are at polls. That’s how we have been trending, except for November of ’24. We had about 45% of our ballots absentee, so that is a little bit of a change,” said Green Bay City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys.
New this year is how voters are checking into the polls.
It’s called the Badger Book, a new way to check in and identify voters faster, getting them to their ballot quicker.
“People sign as you do at the festival when you pay with your credit card. You sign on the screen, and everything is recorded electronically on a stick. So there are no paper poll books in those locations. The plan is to roll them out to nine locations for the April, August and November elections,” said Jeffreys.
The Badger Book is the only legal electronic polling book in the state.
Jeffreys says it streamlines the work being done on Election Day by poll workers.
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“They limit a lot of extra work that poll workers have to do during Election Day. They also limit and streamline the work that we have to do to reconcile the election afterward, so we are very excited to have those as an addition,” said Jeffreys.
The next election will be the spring general election on April 7.
