111,000 ballots requested in May 12 election

MADISON -- State elections officials say local clerks have received nearly 111,000 requests for absentee ballots for the May 12 special election in northern Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission says that as of Friday morning clerks across the 21-county district had received 110,921 absentee ballot applications. The district has about 420,500 registered voters. That means more than 25% of the district's voters have requested an absentee ballot.

The commission says voters have returned 69,472 ballots so far.

Republican state Sen. Tom Tiffany and Democrat Tricia Zunker, president of the Wausau School Board, are vying to fill the seat after Republican Sean Duffy resigned in September. Duffy, a former realty TV star on MTV's “The Real World,” said he wanted to spend more time with his family. His ninth child, a daughter, was born in October with Down syndrome and holes in her heart.