APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – The City of Appleton is installing seven secure ballot boxes throughout the city for absentee ballot submissions ahead of the November 3rd election.
Starting today, ballot boxes are available at all six fire stations – and city hall.
“Some people are concerned with sending their ballot through the mail. Or if they get their ballots too close to election day and don’t have adequate time to send it back through the mail, then they can utilize these drop boxes,” said City Clerk Kami Lynch. “If they would feel most comfortable doing everything by mail but they’re cautious with putting their ballot back in the mail, this gives them the opportunity to go to any one of the dropbox locations to make sure that it is returned, and returned timely.”
“We heard the concerns members of our community expressed about options for returning absentee ballots, and these ballot boxes are a direct response to those concerns,” Mayor Jake Woodford said. “Our goal in the City of Appleton is to ensure every eligible voter has the opportunity to safely exercise their right to vote.”
The city has already mailed out over 16,000 absentee ballots. Only 17,000 were used during the April election. Lynch expects to see that number rise in the 20,000 range – which is about half of the registered voters in the city.
“It’s important for every voter to vote in the manner that they feel most comfortable voting in,” Lynch said.
All of the ballot boxes are securely mounted and will be emptied on a regular basis.
“They will be picked up by a designated city official and then brought back to the clerk’s office. Then we have to check them into the state system and review all the certificate envelopes, as we do with the ones that come back in the mail. Then we store them here in our vault until we send them to the polling places,” Lynch told WTAQ News. “The morning of the election they’ll be at the polling places and will be opened and counted.”
All of the fire station drop boxes will be open through the weekend prior to the election. The city hall dropbox location will be available the Monday before the election. But on election day, voters need to return their ballots to their polling places.
Registered voters can request an absentee ballot by visiting www.myvote.wi.gov.
The ballot boxes are available at the following locations:
Fire Station 1
700 N. Drew Street
Fire Station 2
1801 S. Matthias Street
Fire Station 3
801 Grove Street
Fire Station 4
724 E. Greenfield Street
Fire Station 5
1701 W. Brewster Street
Fire Station 6
4930 N. Lightning Drive
Appleton City Hall
100 N. Appleton Street
(Box will be located on City Center Street behind the City Center)
