City Shares Concerns Regarding Missing Absentee Ballots

The City of Platteville has been made aware that some voters who requested an absentee ballot by mail, may have never received it.  In many cases, when notified, the city was able to re-issue an absentee ballot to the voter. There were some cases that were reported to the city Monday, the day before the election, that due to time constraints and the changing of the court order, they were unable to be re-issued. This issue has been one that has affected the whole state. This has been very frustrating news for the Clerk’s Deptartment as there were many hours of hard work and many hands that came together to process these absentee requests. There was great pride taken in fulfilling the requests within 24 hours and it was disheartening to learn that some ballots sent as early as March 17, 2020 did not reach voters.   

Megan Wolfe, Administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said that she has heard of ballot mailing issues from a number of communities.  According to Wolfe, the Elections Commission has been working with the Postal Service to find out more information about if there are any irregularities or issues that they are aware of.  The Commission is trying to understand what the scope is of ballots that still may be in transit.  Either from the clerk to the voter, or from the voter back to the clerk. 

The City Clerk’s office is unclear as to how many voters were affected by the undelivered ballots.  The City of Platteville received 1811 absentee ballot requests, all of which were fulfilled within 24-hours of receipt.  Unfortunately, at this time there is no alternative for voters whose ballots were not received by the April 7 deadline.  

Please know that the Election has not yet been closed as a court ruling ordered for the Election to stay open until Monday, April 13, 2020 to allow more time for absentee ballots to be received. Absentee ballots can be counted as long as they have been postmarked by April 7, 2020 and received by April 13, 2020 at 4 p.m. via mail. This is the only way the new court order that was put in place the evening of Monday, April 6, 2020 will allow Clerk’s to accept ballots received between April 8, 2020 and April 13, 2020 at 4 p.m.

See links below to read about the absentee ballot issues other areas are having:​https://www.wisn.com/article/wisconsin-officials-call-for-investigation-...

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/08/wiscon...

https://www.wbay.com/content/news/Missing-absentee-ballots-tied-to-voter...