Wisconsin voting advocates sue to protect voters from being disenfranchised by mail delays

Faced with growing concerns about mail delays, voting advocates are asking a Wisconsin state court to give voters a backup option to cast their ballot in person on Election Day. 

Law Forward and Fair Elections Center filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and one state voter. The litigation comes in response to “growing evidence” that ballots might not arrive in time to be counted even if voters send in their mail ballots one week before Election Day, the complaint said.

“When mailed absentee ballots are delayed and will not arrive in time to be counted, Defendants [the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC)] forbid Wisconsinites from exercising their right to vote in person on Election Day,” the complaint stated.

The League of Women Voters is asking the court to find that Wisconsin voters in this situation must be allowed to cast a provisional ballot that would be counted only after officials confirm that the 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,” Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, said in a statement. 

Voting advocates have good reason to be worried.

After this year’s April election for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, the WEC sent a letter to the U.S. Postal Service notifying it of “widespread” concerns from local election clerks about how long it took to receive mail ballots.

“Many of the clerks described infrequent mail deliveries when compared to past elections,” the letter said. “One veteran clerk described the quality of service as the lowest in her 23 years of experience.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) called for an investigation into the mail ballot delivery delays.

Many states offer voters a mail ballot grace period to account for mail delays, but Wisconsin requires ballots to arrive by 8 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted.

However, in the complaint filed this week, voting advocates argued that the WEC has the authority to make a change that could prevent voter disenfranchisement: It could reverse its prohibition on allowing voters to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day if they’re concerned about mail delays.

“There is no excuse to deny Wisconsin voters a provisional ballot when their mailed ballot is delayed or lost in the mail,” Jon Sherman, litigation director at Fair Elections Center, said in a statement. “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.”