After long waits at Stevens Point polls, city moves to speed up voting process

Voters in Stevens Point had to wait up to three hours to cast their vote in a historic midterm Election Day, but the city is working to make sure no one has to wait that long again. Both the city mayor’s office and clerk’s office are requesting $35,000 in next year’s budget to purchase election devices to help reduce the strain of larger voter turnouts. “They won’t be any cheaper two years from now, nor do we want the November 2028 election to be our first time trying this,” Mayor Mike Wiza said. Understanding Wisconsin, Together. WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter. URL This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Email Subscribe Election staff in Stevens Point were ready for a busy Tuesday at the polls, but the lines were much longer than expected, Wiza said. Wisconsin’s polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, but by law those who are in line by that time have a right to cast their ballots. Most years, Wiza said voters joining the line at 8 p.m. would be gone before 9. But not this year. “Ten-thirty p.m. was when those people got out of the polling location this year,” Wiza said. “I’ve never seen it that long.” Despite the above long waits in Stevens Point, Wiza said that as of Nov. 5, the city hadn’t received any formal complaints about the time it took to vote. Other places around Wisconsin also saw some extended wait times on Nov. 3. In Green Bay , the high voter turnout led to some long lines and late voter registrations — recording more ballots than the previous midterms. Delafield urged voters to be prepared with required documents to avoid long lines at the polls or registering to vote. Superior and Madison saw voters lined up early to cast ballots Tuesday. And, even early in-person voting in Milwaukee saw long wait times back in October. Stevens Point is interested in finding ways to keep vote lines shorter, Wiza said. They’re looking at potentially adding staff or hosting voter registration events before election day. The $35,000 requested would pay for additional electronic poll books called Badger Books. Badger Books are used to check in voters, process same-day registrations and record absentee ballots. But the actual process of voting does not change: Voters still use paper ballots, and place them in tabulators. And the devices “are not connected to the internet, ensuring the security of voter data,” the city of Stevens Point said in a statement. Some of the longest lines this year were at polling stations near the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus. Many young voters took part in the 2026 midterm elections, and Wiza said that may have added to the long waits. “We are looking at possibly asking for a legislative change to allow a second in-person absentee voting location, and maybe we put that on campus,” he said. Currently, the only location for that operation is at City Hall, which Wiza said can make it much longer for first-time or registering voters to accomplish what they need to to vote. “We’re going to try and make the process as easy as possible, so everybody has an opportunity to exercise their rights in the most convenient way possible,” Wiza said. Related Stories With Wisconsin’s leadership on the line, voters head to the polls In-person absentee voting surges amid declines in ballots arriving by mail Elections Commission: Clerks should call lawyers if federal law enforcement shows up at polls What’s the Trump factor for rural Wisconsin voters in 2026? Crowley leads Tiffany by 4 points in new head-to-head poll of likely voters