Two Dem members of the Election Commission and the Republican National Committee want to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to allow Wisconsin voters to spoil their absentee ballots if they change their minds on who they want to support.
Ann Jacobs and Mark Thomsen voted against Elections Commission guidance issued earlier this month barring voters from getting a new absentee ballot if they wanted to vote for someone else.
The pair argued in their brief filed with the Dane County Circuit Court that the commission had previously allowed those voting absentee to spoil their ballots and cast a new one. They contend it was inappropriate for the commission to vote 4-2 on July 9 — two weeks after ballots began going out to voters — to change the rules of the election.
They also contend the change violates equal protection laws, noting state statute allows those who vote at the polls who “by accident or mistake, spoils or erroneously prepares a ballot” to receive up to two additional ballots after returning the defective one.
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“Moreover, the Commission’s guidance at issue unlawfully treats absentee voters worse than voters who cast their ballots on Election Day,” they argued.
As several Dems dropped out of the U.S. Senate race ahead of the 2022 primary, the commission stated voters who had submitted their ballots already could request a new one for any reason, as long as they complied with statutory deadlines.
That policy was challenged in a 2022 lawsuit and barred by then-Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel. An appeals court vacated Schimel’s ruling in February on procedural grounds.
GOP secretary of state candidate Nate Pollnow, backed by the RNC, argued in a proposed brief that the commission’s guidance from earlier this month was consistent with the position it had taken since after Schimel’s ruling in 2022.
Rather than changing the rules of the election, as Dem plaintiffs have argued, the guidance reinforced the commission’s past stance, the filing argues.
It adds state laws bar clerks from returning absentee ballots to electors with only two exceptions: when a voter spoils their ballot before returning it to the clerk and if the voter failed to complete the certificate on the ballot envelope.
“Moreover, the ‘re-voting’ scheme envisioned by Plaintiffs poses significant risks of chaos, fraud, and the dilution and pollution of votes, and it will undermine faith and trust in our election system if implemented,” the RNC argued.