Wisconsin judge has ruled certain absentee ballots are illegal.
A Waukesha judge has ruled that Wisconsin voters cannot cancel an absentee ballot that they have already mailed back just so they can cast a new ballot.
Wisconsin voters cannot cancel an absentee ballot they have already mailed back just to cast a new one.
Former Republican Attorney General and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel granted a permanent injunction, which will contain substantially the same terms as the injunction he granted in October 2022.
The suit was launched in September 2022 by Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections on behalf of voter Nancy Koranic, who claimed that the Wisconsin Elections Commission illegally told clerks in August 2022 that “ballot spoiling” was legal.
Both the Democratic National Committee and Rise, a left-leaning group, intervened on behalf of the state commission.
Schimel ruled that Wisconsin laws contain no language that would authorize the scheme whereby a clerk spoils the ballot for the elector, at their request, and sends out a new blank ballot for a do-over. He also ruled that the legislature requires strict safeguards and rules to protect absentee voting and that any rules need to be scrutinized so that ballots are fairly counted.
Wisconsin has seen several lawsuits relating to absentee ballots since the 2020 election, with a judge ruling in September 2022 that guidance allowing election clerks to fill in missing information on absentee ballot witness certificates was illegal.
The state has emerged as a critical swing in the electoral college for presidential contests, with the Democratic nominee winning the state in every election since 1988, except for 2016, when former President Donald Trump won.
In 2020, President Joe Biden recaptured the state for Democrats by a slim margin of around 20,000 votes, some analysts attributed this flip back to Democrats due to pandemic-era elections rules governing absentee voting.
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