Unexpected outcome in Wisconsin: Tens of thousands of ballots that arrived after Election Day were counted, thanks to court decisions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/unexpected-outcome-in-wisconsin-tens-of-thousands-of-ballots-that-arrived-after-voting-day-were-counted-thanks-to-court-decisions/2020/05/03/20c036f0-8a59-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html

By Amy Gardner,
Dan Simmons and
Robert Barnes
May 3, 2020 at 5:40 p.m. EDT


Early last month, voters in Wisconsin navigated a dizzying number of rule changes governing the state’s spring elections as officials tussled over the risks of the novel coronavirus, prompting a backlog of absentee ballot requests and fears that many would not be able to participate.

But in the end, tens of thousands of mail ballots that arrived after the April 7 presidential primaries and spring elections were counted by local officials, a review by The Washington Post has found — the unexpected result of last-minute intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Milwaukee and Madison alone, the state’s two largest cities, more than 10 percent of all votes counted, nearly 21,000 ballots, arrived by mail after April 7, according to data provided by local election officials.

The surprising outcome after warnings that many Wisconsinites would be disenfranchised amid the pandemic was the result of a largely unexamined aspect of the court’s decision that temporarily changed which ballots were counted. Because of the order, election officials for the first time tallied absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day, rather than just those received by then — underscoring the power of narrow court decisions to significantly shape which votes are counted.

In Milwaukee and Madison alone, the state’s two largest cities, more than 10 percent of all votes counted, nearly 21,000 ballots, arrived by mail after April 7, according to data provided by local election officials.

The surprising outcome after warnings that many Wisconsinites would be disenfranchised amid the pandemic was the result of a largely unexamined aspect of the court’s decision that temporarily changed which ballots were counted. Because of the order, election officials for the first time tallied absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day, rather than just those received by then — underscoring the power of narrow court decisions to significantly shape which votes are counted.

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Republicans, meanwhile, say they are prepared to spend millions of dollars to oppose these efforts, arguing that extending ballot deadlines creates an opportunity for fraud. Some have also been open in their view that higher turnout could harm them politically. On March 30, President Trump said that if Democratic efforts to expand mail balloting succeeded, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

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The five conservative justices sided with the GOP, issuing an opinion on the eve of in-person voting that a blanket extension of the deadline would improperly allow voters to cast their ballots after April 7. Instead, they said ballots had to be postmarked by Election Day — effectively imposing a new standard.

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The Supreme Court’s order also led officials to reject ballots that would have been counted if the rules had not changed.

In 13 cities where the data was available, at least 4,500 ballots were thrown out that would have been tallied under the lower court judge’s ruling, The Post found.

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For instance, thousands of ballots with missing voter signatures, witness signatures or witness addresses were rejected across the state, which legally requires such information.

It’s a sign of the barriers facing voters who are unaccustomed to voting by mail — and of the particular challenge that witness requirements present during a pandemic, especially for those who live alone and are unwilling to seek out contact with another person.

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Thousands of ballots were rejected because of postmark issues, The Post’s examination found. Hundreds were rejected because of a late postmark, but many hundreds more showed no postmark or an illegible one. In Milwaukee, that number was 390, and city election officials chose to count those ballots anyway. Most other localities discarded such ballots, even though many may have been posted on time.

Several election officials said that some post offices do not use postmarks with dates but that their hands were tied by the high court’s ruling.

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