The City of Milwaukee would mail absentee ballot applications to all of its roughly 300,000 registered voters under a new proposal from Ald.-elect Marina Dimitrijevic.

The plan already has the support of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Gov. Tony Evers.

Dimitrijevic, who will take office Tuesday as the city's 14th District alderwoman, has begun circulating the bill at City Hall. The legislation has nine co-sponsors so far: Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton as well as Alds. Cavalier Johnson, Nik Kovac, Robert Bauman, Nikiya Dodd, Milele Coggs, Khalif Rainey, José Pérez and Ald.-elect JoCasta Zamarripa.

Dimitrijevic plans to introduce the measure for immediate adoption Tuesday at the first Milwaukee Common Council meeting of the new term. It will be the first council meeting for her and Zamarripa, who was elected to represent the city's 8th District.

Barrett said he "enthusiastically" supports the proposal.

"Given the fact that there is no vaccine, it would be important for us to proactively reach out and make sure that voters know that this is an option, that this is a wise option," Barrett said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel.

The mayor said he thinks federal coronavirus aid money, rather than property taxpayers, could cover the costs.

"I believe that the assistance that we're getting from the federal government would allow us to use those resources," Barrett said.

The bill comes after Wisconsin's controversial April 7 election, which was held in the middle of the deadly coronavirus pandemic despite calls from Evers, Barrett, other local leaders and Democrats as well as some public health experts to postpone the election or move to a mail-only vote.

Many voted by mail, but about 18,800 Milwaukee residents voted in person — including some who waited in line for more than two hours to cast their ballots.

"More than 18,000 Milwaukee citizens bravely exercised their sacred right to vote by going to the polls in the face of the coronavirus pandemic," Dimitrijevic said.

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"The world watched as Milwaukee voters and poll workers wore masks and practiced social distancing to protect the health of our city for an in-person vote that was dangerous, ill-advised and — as one voter noted in a now-viral protest sign — ridiculous," she said.

RELATED:Wisconsinites came out to vote in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic on an election day unlike any other

Dimitrijevic is calling her plan the "SafeVote" program. Under the proposal, each registered voter living in the city would receive an application for an absentee ballot along with a postage-paid return envelope in time for them to participate in the fall general election when the presidential election is on the ballot as well as a host of partisan legislative and county offices.

She said she hoped to have the system in place for both the August primary and the November general election. The proposal is limited to this fall's elections.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that nothing is truly certain at the moment, but with SafeVote we can make certain that all registered voters in Milwaukee can easily apply for an absentee ballot for the historic and pivotal election this fall," she said.

The proposal would require Neil Albrecht, the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, to create the SafeVote program within 30 days of the effective date of the resolution.

The plan would implement a practice similar to one used by Whitefish Bay and Bayside before the April 7 election. Roughly 60% of registered voters in Whitefish Bay cast an absentee ballot, more than any other village or city in Wisconsin, an analysis of state data shows. The equivalent statewide figure is 32%.

Evers backs Milwaukee's plan and hopes more communities take similar action.

"The governor absolutely supports proposals like this that make it easier for Wisconsinites to vote safely from home," spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff said. "We hope to see more municipalities take proactive steps to encourage safe and easy participation in our democracy."

The use of absentee ballots became a major issue in last week’s election, with a record number of people asking to vote that way but many complaining they did not get their ballots in time to cast them.

A federal judge allowed absentee ballots to be returned to clerks as late as Monday — six days after the election. The U.S. Supreme Court partially reversed that order and ruled that ballots that clerks received after election day had to have been postmarked by then.

Ordinarily, absentee ballots must be in clerks’ hands by election day.

Nearly 114,000 absentee ballots that were received after election day were counted, according to the groups that brought the lawsuit that expanded absentee voting.

"We are proud that we stood by all Wisconsin voters and helped re-enfranchise those voters that our Republican governmental leaders tried to silence,” said a statement from the group, which included Souls to the Polls and Black Leaders Organizing for Communities.

Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel contributed.

Contact Mary Spicuzza at (414) 224-2324 or mary.spicuzza@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MSpicuzzaMJS.