Clerks: Absentee ballots sent out without issue

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Absentee ballots for the Aug. 11 primary are being mailed across Wisconsin amid a legal challenge to an executive order by President Donald Trump that would limit who can receive mail-in ballots, clerks tell WisPolitics.

A federal judge blocked the executive order, initially signed in March, that directs the U.S. Postal Service to gather a list of eligible voters, or have a state provide them, and refuse to mail ballots to anyone not on the list.

June 25th was the deadline for municipal clerks to send absentee ballots to voters with a valid request already on file for the August primary. However, most voters can still request an absentee ballot for the Aug. 11 primary until Aug. 6.

County clerks in La Crosse, Marathon and Milwaukee County told WisPolitics absentee ballots went out to municipal clerks as usual and that they have heard no reports of issues using the postal service from clerks within their respective counties.

The deputy city clerk for Eau Claire, Waukesha city clerk and Racine city clerk office staff members said their respective cities had no issues mailing out absentee ballots. In Wisconsin, county clerks offices are responsible for the printing of the ballots, while municipal clerks are responsible for mailing them.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin joined her Democratic colleagues by co-signing a letter to the United States Postal Service asking it to not implement the proposed rule required by the executive order.

At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last week, U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner said the service would stop the delivery of mail-in ballots in states that did not provide a voter list.

“Ultimately, the proposed rule seeks to create a centralized national absentee voter database with individualized barcodes connected to the voters’ names under the control of the President that contains the voting information of millions of Americans,” the senators wrote. “That information would be ripe for potential abuse or improper disclosure potentially imperiling the integrity of American elections.”

However, concerns over issues with absentee ballots by mail are not new in Wisconsin elections.

Following the April 7 election, a survey of 906 municipal clerks by the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported that two-thirds of clerks “observed problems with delivery of by-mail absentee ballots.”

As a result, the Elections Commission sent a letter to Steiner and expressed “concern about mail delays that threaten the ability of our citizens to exercise their right to vote.”