'This is insanity': Wisconsin election officials fear confusion, back off on double mailing of most absentee ballots

MADISON - Wisconsin election officials abruptly canceled plans Wednesday to send tens of thousands of voters two absentee ballots for the presidential primary, saying their new approach may violate state law but will avoid mass confusion.   

The Wisconsin Elections Commission this month caused panic among clerks across the state when it told them a quirk in the law would require them to send two absentee ballots to 81,000 voters — but count only one of them.  

All sides agreed the situation was ripe for confusion, but some election officials contended they had little choice but to follow state law. 

The commissioners unanimously determined Wednesday they should send two ballots to only a small subset of absentee voters — the several thousand who are overseas or in the military. Other absentee voters will get just one ballot under the new plan.

State law says absentee ballots for federal races must be mailed 47 days before the election for those who request them. That means they should be mailed on Feb. 20 for the April 7 presidential primary.  

Feb. 20 falls two days after the Feb. 18 primary for local and state races. Results of the Feb. 18 primary won't be certified by the time the first batch of absentee ballots for the April 7 elections are supposed to go out. 

Among the state and local primaries on the ballot are races for state Supreme Court, Milwaukee mayor and Milwaukee County executive.

Staff for the commission this month told clerks to mail what it is calling "A" ballots on Feb. 20 that include only the presidential candidates. The staff told clerks to send followup "B" ballots in March that included the candidates for local and state offices along with those running for president. 

If voters returned both ballots, clerks were to count only the "B" ballots.

Democrats and Republicans on the commission were united in their disdain for the staff plan. 

"This is insanity," said Commissioner Ann Jacobs, a Democrat.

Commission Chairman Dean Knudson, a Republican, said the plan would cause confusion, inconvenience and possibly chaos. But he expressed reluctance initially at abandoning it because state law is clear about when absentee ballots must be sent. 

"I’m troubled (that) we would be saying, 'Look, don’t follow the law," he said. "Mailing out the ballots on Feb. 20 is going to be logistically nearly impossible and yet that’s what the law would require."

Despite those legal concerns, Knudson joined the other commissioners in voting to drop the staff plan. 

Instead, the commission decided the two absentee ballots would be sent only to military and overseas voters. The commission, which consists of three Republicans and three Democrats, didn't have a way to get around sending two ballots to those voters because of a federal law meant to ensure military and overseas voters have enough time to return ballots with federal races on them. 

Under the commission's plan, other absentee voters will get only one ballot.

State lawmakers set rules for when to send absentee ballots in 2011 in response to the federal law for military and overseas voters. The Wisconsin Legislature wrote the law more broadly than the federal law so that it applies to all absentee voters, not just military and overseas voters. 

The requirement to send ballots early to all absentee voters was in place for the 2012 and 2016 presidential primaries, but election officials did not comply with it.

Election officials discovered the issue recently as they reviewed voting laws when a special election was called to replace U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, who stepped down in September.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.