Wisconsin voters returned more than 117,000 absentee ballots before one of the front-runners in the governor’s race dropped out and another contender jumped back in — but a judge ruled Wednesday that those voters are not allowed to request new ones.
The ruling shut down a lawsuit filed by the state’s Democratic Party against the Wisconsin Elections Commission to allow the absentee voters to submit new ballots because of the race’s changing nature.
“The unambiguous language of the statute does not allow a voter to spoil an absentee ballot after it is returned,” Dane County Circuit Judge David Conway wrote in his ruling, referencing the guidance the state elections commission rolled out earlier this month on voters’ ability to receive new ballots.
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Devin Remiker denounced Conway’s decision and tied the commission’s decision to larger efforts to “suppress” mail-in voting.
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“The decision to change the rules around voting that were a long-standing practice before Republicans’ attempts to suppress absentee voting was wrong, and we disagree with the ruling today,” Remiker wrote in a statement — adding that the state party intends to “examine all of [their] options moving forward.”
“Their primary is already chaotic enough,” Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming told The Associated Press earlier this month about the lawsuit. “Election laws should not be changed to rescue one party from the consequences of its own actions.”
Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who was seen as a front-runner in the governor’s race, dropped out on July 17 after reporting “serious mismanagement and inaccuracies” in her campaign finance filings. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley jumped back into the race on July 18 — after he’d dropped out on July 8 and endorsed Rodriguez — with support from retiring Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Missy Hughes, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO, suspended her campaign earlier this month — triggering a decision by the state elections commission to block the ability to revote if a candidate drops out.
The commission voted 4-2 on July 9 to issue the guidance limiting voters’ ability to “spoil” their ballots and excluded circumstances like someone deciding to vote for another candidate.
In their suit, Democrats urged the court to issue a temporary restraining order against the policy.
Rodriguez’s and Hughes’ names remain on ballots, and the primary election is Aug. 11.
Five Democratic candidates — Crowley, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, former Milwaukee mayoral chief of staff Joel Brennan, state Rep. Francesca Hong and state Sen. Kelda Roys — are still in the running for the Democratic nomination.
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