{"id":8982,"date":"2024-02-14T05:03:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T06:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=8982"},"modified":"2024-02-14T06:58:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T06:58:37","slug":"wisconsin-elections-commission-clarifies-absentee-ballot-rules-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=8982","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Elections Commission Clarifies Absentee Ballot Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-elections-commission-clarifies-absentee-ballot-rules\/tcsquare\/2024\/02\/14\/\">https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-elections-commission-clarifies-absentee-ballot-rules\/tcsquare\/2024\/02\/14\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<h5>by Benjamin Yount<\/h5>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wisconsin\u2019s election managers say as long as there is a house number and a street name, absentee voting witness slips don\u2019t need a city, the state, a zip code or anything else.<\/p>\n<p>The Wisconsin Elections Commission clarified the rule for absentee ballot witnesses address information.<\/p>\n<p>The commission told clerks to error on the side of counting ballots and issued five specific clarifications as to when ballots are not to be rejected.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The witness\u2019s street number, street name, and municipality are present, but there is neither a state name nor a ZIP code provided;<\/li>\n<li>The witness\u2019s street number, street name, and ZIP code are present, but there is neither a municipality nor a state name provided;<\/li>\n<li>The witness\u2019s street number and street name are present and match the street number and street name of the voter, but no other address information is provided;<\/li>\n<li>The witness certification indicates that the witness address is the same as the voter\u2019s address with any or any combination of the following words: \u201csame,\u201d \u201csame address, \u201csame as voter,\u201d \u201csame as above,\u201d \u201csee above,\u201d \u201cditto,\u201d or by using quotation marks and\/or an arrow or line pointing to or from the voter address.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The clarifications come after a Dane County judge struck down Wisconsin\u2019s law on absentee ballot addresses, saying the law was inconsistent.<\/p>\n<p>That judge told the Elections Commission to instruct local election clerks how to handle absentee ballot witness slips that are missing part of the witnesses\u2019 address.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans said the judge\u2019s ruling opened-up another opportunity for fraud.<\/p>\n<p>State Rep. Dave Maxey, R-New Berlin, said it again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am deeply concerned about the Wisconsin Elections Commission\u2019s decision to issue guidance on incomplete witness addresses on absentee ballot certificates,\u201d Maxey said. \u201cThe Commission had two clear options: either pass an emergency rule for the normal legislative process or listen to an appointed judge in Dane County. Unfortunately, they chose to sidestep the legislative process by issuing guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maxey said lawmakers could have clarified the law, and the Elections Commission could have clarified the absentee ballot envelope. But he said the Commission chose to go its own way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope the Commission decides to reconsider its actions and uphold the integrity of our electoral process,\u201d Maxey added. \u201cI\u2019m very disappointed the commission doesn\u2019t take election integrity as seriously as the people of Wisconsin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n<p><em>Benjamin Yount is a contributor to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/wisconsin\/article_c0ca097e-c9e2-11ee-a26b-6f351c07c1d0.html\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">The Center Square. <\/a><br \/>\nPhoto \u201cAbsentee Ballots\u201d by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lancefisher\/292527918\/in\/photolist-rRhmN-dB6wWK-rRejM-zSn1sg-2jx2m9E-5zfrip-5t5chV-2jx2mez-5z8Y4J-2jBWn2a-2jx2mpj-87WVt6-aCD38x-aCFJsY-dfaggK-2nwHvPT-2nsvBJH-5t5czp-6fWAd-dBczao-rRedk-LY7mUZ-2jZK2V5-cbC4go-5sgPAz-2krmahi-2krky6v-2jZPvry-2jZNK5r-5tnHxV-9jjvWM-3k3MKX-2jZPvsR-2jZPvts-2jZPvqw-2jZNK82-2jZPvqM-8HNKqa-4qyb7R-2jZK2TM-2jZNK8s-2jZK2TX-25iQWsX-4qyb3g-rBC7Tz-5wfZBp-dn52mW-MRoWKi-cASwVY-MW8vrm\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">Lance Fisher<\/a>. CC BY-SA 2.0.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-elections-commission-clarifies-absentee-ballot-rules\/tcsquare\/2024\/02\/14\/\">Wisconsin Elections Commission Clarifies Absentee Ballot Rules<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\">The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-elections-commission-clarifies-absentee-ballot-rules\/tcsquare\/2024\/02\/14\/ by Benjamin Yount \u00a0 Wisconsin\u2019s election managers say as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8983,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982\/revisions\/8983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}