Judge rejects Wisconsin absentee ballot redo request

A last-minute attempt to let absentee voters change their ballots because their candidate has dropped out of the race has been rejected by a Dane County judge.

For now, that means more than 112,000 absentee ballots returned in the chaotic Democratic primary for governor are locked in ahead of the Aug.11 election.

A lawsuit filed last week by three Democratic voters sought to overturn recent guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission specifying that absentee voters cannot “spoil” their ballots and request new ones because they have changed their minds or their first-choice candidate dropped out of the race. The voters behind the suit cast absentee ballots for Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez before she dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination following a campaign implosion.

The challenge claimed absentee voters are being treated differently than in-person voters and their rights under the Wisconsin Constitution are being violated. That’s because people voting in person on election day can spoil their ballots and get replacements.

The lawsuit asked Dane County Circuit Court Judge David Conway for an injunction blocking the commission’s guidance.

In an order published Wednesday, Conway disagreed and declined to block the commission’s guidance. He said in-person voters can request new ballots if they make mistakes, or even if they change their mind while filling it out. But Conway said state law doesn’t allow them to change their minds after the ballot has been turned in.

“In effect, this means an absentee voter who has not yet returned his ballot and who accidentally or mistakenly fills in the ballot for the wrong candidate may take the ‘spoiled’ ballot back to the clerk and exchange it for a new one,” Conway wrote. “But it does not mean (they) can still ‘spoil’ their ballots after they have returned them.”

Conway went further, stating spoiling ballots after they’d been accepted by election workers should never have been allowed.

“At no time before or after July 9, did the law allow absentee voters to spoil their returned ballots, even if some clerks may have mistakenly allowed this to happen out of confusion or misunderstanding about the law.”

An attorney representing the Democratic voters who brought the suit did not immediately respond when asked if they plan to appeal Conway’s ruling.

As of Wednesday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported more than 112,000 absentee ballots have already been returned ahead of the Aug.11 primary election for governor.