State Election Officials Downplay Errors by Municipal Clerks
[Madison, Wisc…] The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board could be facing a lawsuit because 30 municipalities failed to send absentee ballots to military and overseas voters, a mistake a GAB official downplayed Tuesday afternoon.“The Department of Justice will file a lawsuit when UOCAVA [Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voter Act] is violated, and we’ve been in contact with them about Wisconsin and other states,” Ryan Williams, spokesperson for the Romney campaign told the MacIver News Service. “If the Department of Justice does not act, we’re willing to file the paperwork with the courts to ensure military members are able to vote and have their votes counted.”
The Romney campaign has been monitoring UOCAVA compliance across the country, and not just battleground states. Violations were also discovered in Vermont, Mississippi and Michigan.
The campaign was paying close attention to Wisconsin, in particular, because the state has been in trouble before because of UOCAVA problems. Only six months ago, a Federal Court entered a consent decree against Wisconsin and the Government Accountability Board for similar violations
“That’s why our campaign looked at Wisconsin and requested information from the Government Accountability Board about the military ballots,” Williams said. “We made a FOIA request from the GAB in mid-September, and the GAB dragged its feet.”
The Romney campaign did not receive any response until after the 45-day deadline passed. Campaign officials wanted to know about ballot requests before the deadline, so action could be taken to keep Wisconsin in compliance with federal law.
When the campaign finally received a spreadsheet from the GAB and saw more than two dozen municipalities failed to meet the deadline, it sent a letter from former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi, on Monday.
“According to multiple independent studies, the full 45-day period is necessary, due to delays in international mail, to ensure the effective voting rights of military voters stationed overseas. A period of less than 45 days does not allow sufficient time for members of our armed forces to receive, complete, and return their absentee ballots,” Principi wrote. “Your office’s violations therefore may deprive service members of their fundamental right to vote.”
Williams said the campaign had not received a response from the GAB as of 11:30 am (CST) on Tuesday.
The GAB also did not respond to a request for comment by MNS, but did provide the spreadsheet it sent to the campaign indicating the municipalities that failed to comply and a tally of affected overseas voters.
By the GAB’s calculation, 39 voters may not be able to receive their ballots and turn them back by the current federal statutory deadline.
“It doesn’t matter what the number is,” Williams said. “We’re making sure every ballot counts.”
According to the GAB, the following municipalities missed the 45-day federal deadline:
TOWN OF LA POINTE
CITY OF CHETEK
TOWN OF ROOSEVELT
TOWN OF BIRCH CREEK
VILLAGE OF BLUE MOUNDS
TOWN OF STANTON
TOWN OF NASHVILLE
TOWN OF WABENO
TOWN OF JAMESTOWN
VILLAGE OF HIXTON
TOWN OF GARDEN VALLEY
VILLAGE OF SULLIVAN
TOWN OF LAKE MILLS
TOWN OF FAIRFIELD
CITY OF NEW LISBON
TOWN OF SCHLESWIG
TOWN OF SPIDER LAKE
TOWN OF PACKWAUKEE
TOWN OF UNION
VILLAGE OF PLUM CITY
TOWN OF RICHWOOD
TOWN OF RICHLAND
TOWN OF BELLE PLAINE
TOWN OF TREMPEALEAU
TOWN OF SPRINGBROOK
TOWN OF EVERGREEN
TOWN OF OASIS
TOWN OF DAKOTA
TOWN OF OMRO
CITY OF KIEL
The State of Wisconsin actually has a tougher requirement. It has determined ballots should be be available for in-person absentee voting in the municipal clerk’s office 47 days prior to the election for national office. The GAB indicates that the following municipalities missed that deadline.
TOWN OF BERGEN
TOWN OF RAYMOND
TOWN OF DEWEY
TOWN OF STEPHENSON
TOWN OF SIGEL
VILLAGE OF HAMMOND
TOWN OF FRANKLIN
TOWN OF SAUKVILLE
TOWN OF CLAYTON
VILLAGE OF EGG HARBOR
CITY OF OCONTO
TOWN OF ARGONNE
CITY OF EVANSVILLE
TOWN OF NEW HAVEN
TOWN OF BERRY
TOWN OF BEAVER DAM
VILLAGE OF GERMANTOWN
TOWN OF PARIS
VILLAGE OF MAZOMANIE
TOWN OF ENTERPRISE
TOWN OF HOLLAND
CITY OF MONTELLO
TOWN OF WEIRGOR
TOWN OF PLATTEVILLE
TOWN OF DUNN
TOWN OF MAPLE GROVE
VILLAGE OF HAUGEN
TOWN OF AMBERG
On Tuesday Morning, GAB Spokesperson Reid Magney emailed the MNS a database and explained the excel spreadsheet as: “The first tab is all the responses to our survey. The second one is the munis who missed the 47-day state deadline. The third tab is the munis who missed the 45-day federal deadline.”
Hours later, we received another statement from the GAB spokesperson that appeared to minimize the impact of the mistakes. We print Magney’s new statement in it’s entirety:
“There is a difference between sending out ballots 45 days before the election, and the ballots having 45 days of transit time (because the ballots can get back by the Friday after the election).
“All but six ballots were sent out with 45 days of transit time.
“Of the six, five were emailed to the voters, so they received them immediately. The sixth voter is in basic training in Georgia, and his ballot was sent to him by mail on October 1. He did not have an email address. He also received information about how to use the new MyVote.WI.gov site to receive an absentee ballot immediately online.
“Our office has been diligent in following up with the clerks who failed to meet the deadlines.
“We have identified 6,120 military and overseas voters in our system (3,740 military, 2,380 overseas). As of Sept. 20, we had 4,288 military and overseas voters from 731 municipalities who made requests for absentee ballots.
“Overall, we have absentee ballot requests from 71,347 voters in 617 municipalities who use SVRS to track absentee ballots. There are a total of 1,851 municipalities.”
These developments are in addition to news, first reported by of the MacIver News Service last week, that the Federal Voter Assistance Program was providing Wisconsin service members the incorrect deadline by which their ballots must be received in order to be counted during the general election in November
The Department of Defense is scrambling to undo any damage caused when the Federal Voting Assistance Program provided the wrong absentee ballot deadline to Wisconsin service members. Also in Washington, DC, House Administration Chairman Dan Lungren, (R-Calif.) took action to ensure that the voting rights of military and overseas voters are protected, including sending a staff attorney to meet with state election officials here.
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