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Fair Elections Center, media@fairelectionscenter.org
Law Forward, media@lawforward.org

Problems with mail delivery threaten to disenfranchise more voters

MADISON, Wis. — Law Forward and Fair Elections Center, on behalf of League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and a Dane County voter, have filed suit in Dane County Circuit Court to ensure that Wisconsin voters may still cast ballots on Election Day if their mailed absentee ballots will not arrive in time to be counted.

As it stands, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) forbids voters from casting a provisional ballot in person on Election Day even if the voter’s mailed ballot appears to be delayed and unlikely to arrive on time. The lawsuit asks the court to find that Wisconsinites in this situation must be allowed to vote a provisional ballot to ensure that they can exercise their constitutional right to vote. Provisional ballots are sealed, set aside, and would be counted only after officials have confirmed that the voter’s mailed ballot was not delivered on time.

“Every voter in Wisconsin that puts an accurately requested absentee ballot in the mail on time expects their vote will be counted. Delays in mail delivery prevent that. It is time to have a remedy for these eligible voters,” said Debra Cronmiller, Executive Director, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.   

During the April 7, 2026 spring election, Wisconsin clerks and others reported irregularities and delays in mail delivery across the state at rates never seen by some of Wisconsin’s most experienced clerks. Following the spring election, WEC surveyed Wisconsin clerks to gain more information. More than 300 clerks from 69 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties submitted written comments, many describing ballots postmarked weeks before the election arriving too late to count. Roughly two-thirds of those surveyed reported problems with mail travel times. In Milwaukee, 336 absentee ballots arrived the day after the election and were rejected. In Fond du Lac, more than 100 met the same fate.

WEC acknowledged the problem in a letter to the U.S. Postmaster General, warning that any delay in election mail can deprive citizens of their fundamental right to vote and urged extraordinary measures to speed delivery. However, WEC has not fixed the piece within its own control. Its recently published election manual still instructs clerks that these impacted voters may not cast a provisional ballot on Election Day.

“The right to vote protects Wisconsinites from baseless disenfranchisement on Election Day. But WEC wants to turn these voters away. That’s just wrong,” said Scott Thompson, Law Forward Staff Counsel. “We shouldn’t punish Wisconsin voters just because the mail is late. They must have the opportunity to vote on Election Day.”

“There is no excuse to deny Wisconsin voters a provisional ballot when their mailed ballot is delayed or lost in the mail,” said Jon Sherman, Litigation Director at Fair Elections Center. “The Wisconsin Elections Commission’s continued ban on this fail-safe ignores the reality of worsening USPS delivery delays and violates the constitutional right to vote.”

The complaint argues allowing a provisional ballot to be cast is the appropriate resolution to this issue. Provisional ballots are already available to certain voters on Election Day and are segregated and not tabulated automatically. If a voter’s mailed ballot does ultimately arrive in time to be counted, the clerk simply would count that one and set the provisional ballot aside; this process ensures that no voter is able to cast multiple ballots.

Read the full complaint here.