The City of Milwaukee had just five in-person voting sites open for Tuesday's election while Madison, a city with a smaller population, had 66 sites where voters could cast their ballots.

That left many wondering why Milwaukee had so few in comparison.

It's a difficult question to answer, Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Neil Albrecht said during a virtual press conference this week.

"I think first and foremost they're two very, very different cities," he said. "The demographics are very different. But I think the answer is really rooted in the COVID-19 pandemic and Milwaukee being at the epicenter of that pandemic."

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As the city was recruiting for election workers, he said, members of the public were hearing about the risks of being an election worker and operating in-person voting sites, "hot spots" in the city of Milwaukee, spiking numbers of confirmed cases here, and an increasing number of deaths.

The messages facing city residents were different from any other municipality in the state, he said, and those messages influenced their willingness to work the polls. And he said he couldn't blame people for making that choice, which ultimately led to a significant shortage of poll workers in Milwaukee.

At least 112 people have died in Wisconsin from COVID-19, with 68 of those deaths in Milwaukee County as of Thursday evening. And of the county's more than 1,560 confirmed coronavirus cases, about 1,200 are in the city of Milwaukee, according to a county dashboard.

In contrast, Dane County has seen 313 confirmed cases and 12 deaths as of Thursday, according to a county dashboard.

Voters experienced long lines and hours-long waits in Milwaukee, which normally has 180 polling sites, and Green Bay, which had two polling sites compared to the 31 the city normally opens.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett echoed Albrecht's rationale for the five voting sites and sharply criticized Republican state legislative leaders who decided to go through with an in-person election and refused to delay the date.

To the critics complaining that Milwaukee only had five polling sites "my reaction is don't somehow let them suck you in on this issue," Barrett said Thursday. “I asked not to do this," he said of Tuesday's in-person voting. "I knew there would be problems. And there were problems."

Barrett praised election workers who did turn up as well as Wisconsin National Guard soldiers and airmen who worked at the polls. He also said locations were chosen because of the need for enough space to maintain social distancing.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said Albrecht handled the election as well as he could, since more election sites would have meant fewer staff to help enforce social distancing.

Albrecht said he made the decision to have five voting centers based on the resources he knew were going to be available to the city.

He said he had to review the number of facilities available to the city that provided enough space to allow voters to practice social distancing — but primarily he said he had to look at election worker staffing.

Albrecht said he felt at the time when he had to decide on a number of sites that there were enough election workers to staff and operate five voting centers. He also said it was necessary to not over-extend Health Department resources in order to focus on the safety of election workers and the public.

When asked why the National Guard helping at the polls didn't result in more voting sites opening, Albrecht said he didn't know until Monday exactly how many members would be available. He added that the city ended up getting about 170 members.

"Had we had that information sooner, I absolutely think it could have influenced the number of voting centers," Albrecht said.

He estimated the city had between 400 and 450 election workers at the polling sites but said a final number probably won't be known for days.

More than 30 members of the Guard were assigned to each voting center, he said, with many acting as election workers because they were able to review a training video beforehand. They also assisted with other functions such as enforcing social distancing and administering curbside voting.

He added that he wished he could have opened more centers, but "any center that would have been short-staffed, there would have been a risk of compromise in the public safety of that center."

Albrecht said the five voting centers were "rigidly managed," with protocols fully enforced around the protection of election workers and voters.

Was Milwaukee turnout lower than it should have been? While election day turnout was extremely low at under 20,000, that was also a function of the large number of people voting absentee. Newly updated figures on absentee voting have pushed the city's estimated overall turnout up to higher levels than it once appeared.

According to state data posted Thursday, 71,549 absentee ballots have been returned so far in Milwaukee, a number that could grow further as ballots postmarked by election day can still be counted until Monday afternoon as they arrive in the mail.

That would put overall city turnout at 90,000 or more (without factoring in any mail ballots that are rejected because they weren't properly filled out). That number would still be far below the 2016 vote, but statewide turnout is also expected to be far below 2016 levels.

At the same time, 90,000 votes cast would be 30% higher than the total city vote in the April 2019 state Supreme Court race. It's still unknown whether the increase in turnout over 2019 was bigger or smaller in Milwaukee than it was in the state as a whole, because most communities haven't released their election day vote totals.

Journal Sentinel reporters Craig Gilbert and Meg Jones contributed to this report.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.