Starting next year, Milwaukee will more than double its current number of early voting locations. Mayor Tom Barrett joined the Wisconsin Voices and the liberal One Wisconsin Institute in announcing that the city approved funds for eight places where Milwaukeeans can vote absentee in person — up from three sites in 2016. The One Wisconsin group won a federal lawsuit last year in which Judge James Peterson struck down limits on early voting set by state Republicans, which included a ban on allowing absentee balloting at multiple locations. About 41-thousand fewer people voted in last year’s presidential election in Milwaukee compared to 2012. Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton says the new sites show the importance of giving city residents “access to the voting booth.”