Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

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In-person early voting kicked off Tuesday across 

, with former President Barack Obama and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz hosting a rally in liberal Madison and Republicans holding events to encourage casting a ballot for 

 in 2020, an election that saw unprecedented early and absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Republican Former President Trump and Democratic Vice President 

 are expecting another razor-thin margin in Wisconsin, and both sides are pushing voters to cast their ballots early.

Walz told a crowd in a Madison arena that he and Harris would make a full-court press in the final two weeks leading up to Election Day. 

“Our team is running like everything is on the line,” Walz said. “Because everything is on the line. We're barnstorming the country. We're on TV, we're on podcasts, we're on radio.”

And he mocked Trump as lacking that kind of stamina heading into the final stretch.

“He has been he has been rambling more than the normal rambling. He calls it the weave,” Walz said. “Donald, come on. Here, we know there's only one weave that you know anything about, and it is not this.”

Dozens of voters waited in line outside Milwaukee's municipal building for the start of early voting at 9 a.m. Hours and locations for early voting varied across the state. 

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 of voting by mail in past elections, falsely claiming it was ripe with fraud. But this election, he and his backers are 

 of voting, including by mail and early in-person. Trump himself encouraged early voting at a rally in Dodge County, Wisconsin, earlier this month.

Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said Monday that the vote-early message from Trump and Republicans this year has been “very clear.” Schimming even put in a plug for using absentee ballot drop boxes, a method of returning ballots that Trump once opposed and that 

“We need to avail ourselves of every imaginable way to get votes in," Schimming said on a press call. “If it’s the difference between getting a vote in, or not getting a vote in, I say to Republicans, ‘Put it in the mailbox or put it in the drop box.’"

Numerous Republican officeholders and candidates planned to cast their ballots Tuesday.

“You never know when a snowstorm is going to come in November in Wisconsin,” said U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, who represents southeastern Wisconsin and plans to vote Tuesday. “It's a great opportunity while the weather’s nice to get out to your local office and cast your vote and have that vote banked.”

Obama and Walz, the governor of neighboring Minnesota, rallied in the Democratic stronghold of Madison. Harris held a rally at the same venue last month, attracting more than 10,000 people.

Obama told the crowd in there that he wouldn’t fault them for leaving early to go cast a ballot. And he emphasized the stakes of the election for health care access, reproductive freedom and the future of democracy.

He said Trump had taken credit for a successful economy spurred by his two terms in office and sought to sow division by talking about the migrant crisis, despite urging lawmakers to oppose an immigration bill in Congress.

“We do not need a president who will make problems worse just to make his politics better,” he said. “We need a president who actually cares about solving problems and making your life better. And that's what Kamala Harris will do. That's what Tim Walz will do.”

Obama was headed to neighboring Michigan later Tuesday, among the 

 the former president is making in battleground states to encourage early voting.

During the event, Walz cast the Trump-Vance ticket as focused on benefitting themselves and the wealthiest Americans at the expense of most voters. He said their policies could penalize those who disagree politically and limit personal freedoms.

“Donald Trump means government's freedom to invade your bedroom, invade your exam room, invade your library, hell, invade anywhere he's talking about using the army against folks,” Walz said. 

” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in the final weeks of the campaign, including stops in Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was in the conservative Milwaukee suburbs on Sunday.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party was also staging events across Wisconsin to encourage early voting, as were liberal advocacy groups including Souls to the Polls, a Milwaukee-based organization that targets Black voters. That is a 

 for Democrats in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city and also the source of the highest number of Democratic votes.

Early voting in Wisconsin began Tuesday and runs through Sunday, Nov. 3. However, locations and times of early voting vary across the state. Voters do not need to give a reason for voting absentee. Ballots started being sent by mail in late September, but beginning Tuesday voters can request one at designated voting locations and cast their ballot in person.

As of Friday, more than 305,000 absentee ballots had already been returned in Wisconsin. Voters can continue to return them by mail, in person, or at 

 in communities where those are available. All absentee ballots must be received by the time polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.

MPR News reporters Dana Ferguson in St. Paul and Clay Masters in Madison, Wis., contributed to this report.

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In-person early voting has kicked off across battleground Wisconsin, with former President Barack Obama and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz hosting a rally in liberal Madison. 

Early voting kicks off in battleground Wisconsin with a push from Obama and Walz

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