The state Elections Commission is directing Madison to redo its canvass of the spring election after finding it improperly included 23 absentee ballots that arrived at polling sites after the deadline due to clerk error.

The commission approved the directive yesterday on a 5-1 vote.

It also unanimously moved to require Mequon to count five absentee ballots that the commission ruled were improperly rejected after witnesses didn’t include their ZIP code or state on the ballot envelope they signed.

GOP Commissioner Don Milis said it was an “epic failure” by Madison election officials to fail to get the absentee ballots to polling sites by 8 p.m. on April 7 to be counted in the spring election. He noted the clerk’s office had the ballots by the day before the election.

Liberal Chris Taylor won the state Supreme Court race on the April 7 ballot by 20 points. Millis said he worried “some clerk’s negligence” could change the results of a future election if the commission didn’t take action.

“There has to be some accountability for the failure to get those ballots to the polling place in a timely matter,” Millis said.

Dem Commissioner Mark Thomsen agreed that there was no excuse for failing to deliver the 23 absentee ballots by the deadline. Still, he didn’t support disenfranchising the 23 people who cast those ballots as a punishment for the clerk’s failures.

“I don’t think the law requires us to do that,” Thomsen said. “I don’t think we have to dogmatically read it this way.”

Chair Ann Jacobs, a Dem appointee, argued commissioners were bound by statute, which requires ballots to be received by 8 p.m. to be counted. Still, she hoped the voters impacted would challenge their votes not being counted.

“I hope the sins of the clerk are not held on the shoulders of the vote,” Jacobs said.

Madison’s failure to deliver the ballots came on the heels of the clerk’s office not counting 193 absentee ballots in the November election. The Elections Commission investigation found a series of errors that led to the clerk’s office not including the ballots in its canvass. 

Meanwhile, a series of court rulings have set a standard that clerks should count absentee ballots missing some address information if they can reasonably assess where witnesses live. The commission has told clerks the street name, number and municipality are sufficient.

But Mequon Clerk Caroline Fochs rejected five ballots if the witness listed a municipality that could be found in more than one state.

Jacobs called the move “somewhat astonishing.”

In both cases, the commission’s orders direct the county boards of canvass and municipal election officials to redo their vote counts to comply with its decision.