“If we hadn’t run into the litigation and the judge had not ordered this period for absentee balloting, it would have been shorter,” Soglin said. “(There) probably would have had more compression and we would have had more long lines.”

Witzel-Behl has noticed few lines at the early voting locations, with many people reporting that voting at local libraries has been a success.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said more people are voting earlier in surrounding counties, but is not surprised Madison has seen a spike. As a larger city, he said Madison “stood to benefit the most from the change.”

Peterson, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2014, also overturned laws in the July decision that increased the residency requirement for voters from 10 days to 28 days, prohibited distributing absentee ballots by fax or email and required "dorm lists" used as proof of residence to include citizenship information. The judge also overturned a provision of the voter ID law banning the use of expired but otherwise qualifying student IDs at the polls.

Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Institute director, said Madison’s proactive approach to early and absentee voting set the city apart as an example for other municipalities.