Your polling place on Election Day is going to look a bit different from now on. Beginning with the February 21, 2023 Spring Primary, a new type of Poll Book, called Badger Books, was implemented.
What is a Badger Book?
The Badger Book is an e-poll book. What does that mean?
“e” stands for electronic
“poll book” stands for poll book
Prior to Election Day, the poll book for the entire municipality is loaded onto the Badger Book via a USB Flash Drive. This contains the exact same information as a paper poll book would.
Badger Books themselves are not and never will be connected to the Internet. The Wisconsin Elections Commission, which created the software for Badger Books, designed the system with cybersecurity as a top priority. After Election Day, participation is taken from the Badger Book and uploaded into WisVote, the secure statewide voter registration system.
Badger Books complete three primary tasks on Election Day:
- Checking in voters
- Election Day Registrations
- Processing Absentee Ballots
What can Badger Books do for you?
- Quicker voter check-ins and registrations
- Eliminate line inequity
- Process Absentee Ballots in a snap
- Improve polling place flow
- No more splitting poll books
- Improve data quality
- Consolidate polling places
- Require fewer election inspectors
- Streamline post-election data entry and reconciliation
- Voters will be able to view their participation sooner in MyVote
Are Badger Books safe?
- There are multiple layers of security to protect the system and voter information
- Badger Books ARE NEVER CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET
- The data loaded onto Badger Books comes from WisVote
- Each Badger Book is password protected and each poll worker has their own credentials to log in to the application
- Voter and participation data are encrypted and secure
- Badger Books communicate via a wireless router, but only within the polling place
- Like a paper poll book, only the data necessary to run an election is included, no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is accessible
Election Day Layout at Veterans Terrace (587 Milwaukee Avenue)
*Layout is subject to change
If you have any questions about the Badger Book program, or would like to learn more, please contact the City Clerk at 262.342.1171 or dhalbach@burlington-wi.gov.