WEST ALLIS, Wis. — As she stepped outside to help a voter with curbside voting, Linda Gesbeck, the chief election inspector for a polling site at Nathan Hale High School, in West Allis, Wis., glanced at the line of voters stretching from the school to far as she could see.

Amira Randolph, 15, and about 25 other young people braved strong wind and near-freezing temperatures on Sunday to encourage people in Milwaukee’s Near South Side to turn out and vote. Wearing masks, the canvassers stepped back six feet after ringing
doorbells.

MILWAUKEE — In a state where Mr. Trump won by less than one percentage point in 2016, any bloc of voters could swing this year’s election, and in Wisconsin, older voters comprise a formidable group.

WAUSAU, Wis. — In China, ginseng is a popular gift prized for its healing powers, and surprisingly enough, Wisconsin-grown ginseng is considered the world’s best. In 2016,

590,000 pounds of the root, claimed to boost immunity and ease the effects of chemotherapy, was exported from the United States, most of it to China — with 98 percent coming from here in Marathon County.

People began lining up before dawn in downtown Milwaukee on Tuesday, the first day of early in-person voting in Wisconsin. Like millions of Americans who are voting early, they were ready to wait. Concerns about mail voting and the coronavirus have sent people to the polls earlier than ever. In Milwaukee, many voters put on parkas and gloves for the first
time this season and staked out a spot. Here’s how long they waited.

MILWAUKEE — Despite the unseasonably cool 35-degree temperature, lines were already snaking around two sides of the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building in downtown Milwaukee by 7:30 a.m., as crowds waited for more than two hours to cast their ballots on the first day of early voting in Wisconsin.

MILWAUKEE — When Mr. Biden named Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, many leaders of color here instantly recognized a “sister” in the vice-presidential nominee.

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Every year since 1961, crowds have filled La Crosse’s streets during the last weekend of September for what is billed as the longest-running Oktoberfest in the Midwest, a time when everyone shares Gemütlichkeit, a spirit of welcome and good cheer.

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers’ famous racing sausage mascots rambled about the sprawling parking lot of the Miller Park baseball stadium for a few hours on Tuesday, but they weren’t there to promote sausage or baseball: It was National Voter Registration Day.

JANESVILLE, Wis. — James Sands was loading his pickup truck with flooring planks on Monday outside Home Depot in Janesville, across the street from a Holiday Inn where Vice President Mike Pence had paid a campaign visit hours earlier.