My rural county party doesn't have enough membership to staff every municipality 50/50. Municipalities are only required to fill positions at a 50/50 balance (if the parties don't supply workers) if they are over a certain population level. Otherwise, these small rural communities and townships can hire whomever they want - often family and friends of the town/village board members or employees - to work the polls. I would be satisfied having one Dem party-affiliated poll worker to keep everyone honest.
Also, if there's an odd number of workers, the odd one goes to the party that won the last statewide election. So it's not always 50/50 but 50/50+1.
None of this means I think there are voting irregularities everywhere. But that's the environment they can occur in. I've been involved in observing/participating in recounts for 20 years. Mostly what I've seen is just incompetence in completing the duties or problems with technology (because the typically older poll workers don't understand it or don't get solid training.)
The other thing to keep in mind is that in WI, you can always observe. There are legal requirements to accommodate observers in every polling station in the state. If you can't work a whole day, you can always show up during the day to see how they are conducting balloting. And you can stay at the end of the day and observe how they close the polls. We have sent campaign workers to various municipalities to do just that some years.
= new reply since forum marked as read