The Wisconsin Elections Commission postponed until after the November election a vote on whether to reprimand two clerks for not accepting absentee ballots at polling places until 8 p.m. on Election Day during previous elections.
The postponement came after Republican commissioners argued against allowing voters to return their absentee ballots at polling places despite WEC Chief Legal Counsel Jim Witecha saying the practice aligns with “how the commission has long been interpreting” the law.
“I’m sorry for getting flustered, but this is a misrepresentation of the case law that’s out there, as well as how the commission has interpreted and messaged it,” Witecha said of Republican Commissioners Don Millis and Bob Spindell’s arguments against allowing voters to hand in ballots at polling places.
The debate came as the commission took up two complaints that had been filed against the clerks of Greenfield and Brookfield for not allowing voters to hand in absentee ballots at polling places after 7 p.m. for the Aug. 9, 2022, fall primary and 5 p.m. for the Feb. 20, 2024, spring primary. The complaints accused them of failing to tell voters how they could still legally hand in those ballots ahead of the 8 p.m. Election Day deadline, and the staff recommending approving a reprimand directing them to follow past agency guidance.
The uniform instructions for absentee voters that the commission created include a section that notes absentee ballots must be received in time to deliver them to the polling place no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day. Those instructions state one option to return absentee ballots is to “Drop it off at your polling place or central count location.”
Millis took issue with the interpretation of state law, saying he believes absentee ballots must be delivered to the clerk’s office or by mail. He moved for postponing a vote on the complaints until staff could further study the issue.
Spindell concurred, saying, “Once you step foot in a polling place, you’re no longer an absentee voter.”
The uniform absentee ballot envelope used in Wisconsin includes a declaration that the voter is “unable or unwilling to appear at the polling place in the ward on Election Day” or has changed their residence within the state at least 28 days before the election.
Democratic WEC Chair Ann Jacobs said she was “flabbergasted” that her GOP colleagues would take issue with the guidance the agency has long provided on the issue, especially since it was included in the directions that have already been sent to absentee voters on how they can return their ballots.
“We approved this exact language in our uniform instructions over a year ago … we made those instructions mandatory, and it tells every absentee voter in this state that they can take their absentee ballot to the poll site,” Jacobs said.
“Well, I sure don’t remember that,” Spindell replied, to which Jacobs told him to “Look it up.”
Jacobs argued that to backtrack on that previous decision would be “disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of absentee voters.”
According to the Elections Commission’s update from Tuesday, local clerks have sent 402,007 absentee ballots to voters already. They’ve returned 7,420 so far.
Jacobs also said disabled voters that cannot vote in person would be treated unequally, needing to get those assisting them to turn in their ballots earlier than other voters, if polling places did not accept absentee ballots until 8 p.m.
Millis replied, “We cannot make this world perfectly equitable for all,” while Spindell brought up concerns about ballot harvesting, when third parties collect completed absentee ballots and deliver them.
