Three tubs of Absentee Ballots that never reached Voters were discovered in a Postal Center outside Milwaukee. At least 9,000 Absentee Ballots requested by Voters were Never Sent, and others recorded as Sent were never Received. Even when Voters did Return their Completed Ballots in the Mail, Thousands were Postmarked too Late to Count.
Cracks in Wisconsin’s Vote-by-Mail Operation are now emerging after the State’s scramble to Expand that effort on the fly for Voters who feared going to the Polls in Tuesday’s Elections.
More than 860,000 Completed Absentee Ballots had been Returned by Tuesday, already a Record for Wisconsin Spring Elections. But for Thousands of other Voters, who Never received their Ballots, there was only One Recourse, putting their Health at Risk and defying a Stay-at-Home Order to Vote in Person during the Coronavirus Pandemic, but many chose Not to show up.
Federal Health Officials have suggested that Expanding Voting by Mail could help Reduce Crowds at Polling Places and therefore make Elections Safer amid the Outbreak. The Issues that have arisen in Wisconsin offer a Warning for other States of the Potential Pitfalls of a Rapid, Last-Minute Expansion of Absentee Balloting, particularly One marred by a Flurry of Court Challenges and 11th-hour Rulings that created Confusion and Chaos.
The Mix of Missing and Mis-Marked Ballots suggests that Thousands of Wisconsin Voters were Effectively Disenfranchised, an Issue that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned of in her Dissent to a Supreme Court Decision on Monday that Blocked Extended Absentee Balloting in the State. Tens of Thousands of People who did Not receive their ballots in time, Justice Ginsburg wrote, “will be left quite literally without a vote.”
The Missing Votes could also portend a Long Legal Battle over the Results: One Race on Tuesday’s Ballot was a hotly contested State Supreme Court Seat that, in a Normal Election, was expected to be extremely Close. The Margin in the State’s 2019 Supreme Court Race was about 6,000 Votes. “This has all the makings of a Florida 2000 if we have a close race,” said Gordon Hintz (54th District), the Democratic Minority Leader in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Hintz, who lives in Oshkosh, was One of the Voters who never received his Absentee Ballot. even though the State’s website said it had been Mailed to him. He chose Not to Vote In-Person.
On Tuesday, calls began flooding the Office of Dan Feyen (R-18th District), the State Senator whose District includes Oshkosh, from Voters saying they never Received their Ballots, even though they were told their Ballots had been sent out. Nearly every one of those Voters had Requested their Ballots on one of Three dates: March 18th, March 22nd, and March 23rd, more than Two weeks before the Election. Feyen filed a Complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, asking it to Investigate. He also wants those Voters to be given a Chance to Fill-Out and Return Ballots.
On Wednesday, the Commission received a Phone Call from a Postal Worker in Milwaukee who said Three Bins of Absentee Ballots had been Located that had never reached their Destinations, mostly in Oshkosh and nearby Appleton. A Spokeswoman for the Postal Service, Martha Johnson, said Thursday that Officials were “aware of potential issues with absentee ballots in Wisconsin and are currently conducting an investigation into the claims.”
Meagan Wolfe, the Elections Commission’s Administrator, said she did Not think the U.S. Supreme Court Decision left any room for Ballots to be Counted if they were Not Postmarked by Tuesday’s Deadline. “There really isn’t any additional things for this election that a voter could do if their ballot didn’t make it by the deadline,” she said in a News Conference on Wednesday.
Some Absentee Voters who received their Ballots and Mailed them back in time are running into a separate issue, Postmarking. After much Legal Wrangling over this year’s Absentee Ballot Deadlines, the Supreme Court’s Decision held that Ballots must be Postmarked by Election Day to Count. But in at least One City, Madison, a Number of Ballots received by the Clerk were Never been Postmarked. “We are still receiving mail now from the post office, and about half of it is postmarked,” said Maribeth Witzel-Behl, the City Clerk. “It’s probably by now a couple thousand that we’ve received from the post office with no postmark.” She said her Office is Dating the Ballots with its Own Stamp as soon as they arrive, and is Working with the City Attorney to determine what to do with them.
Even when Postmarks are applied, they can prove Problematic, particularly for some Rural Voters. Some in Rural Jackson County, said that the Mail Truck in Town comes Once a day, at 7:30 a.m., so if the Ballots were in the Mailbox on Election Day it wouldn’t be Postmarked in time.
With Ballots still trickling in and Results yet to be released, there has been No Major Legal Challenge to Tuesday’s Election. But Activist Groups and Election Lawyers in Wisconsin are still Reviewing their Options and Monitoring Reports of Missing Ballots.
But perhaps nothing presented as Great a Challenge for Wisconsin as the Vast Expansion of the Absentee System in such a Short Period of Time. More than 1.2 Million Ballots were Requested this year, only about 250,000 were Issued in Wisconsin’s 2016 Election.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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