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Timely Ballots to be Counted
Some late ballots will be counted in Wisconsin this fall.
A Dane County judge on Wednesday said ballots that arrive after 8p.m. on Election Day will be counted as long as the voter is not to blame for the ballot arriving late.
"The Legislature may regulate the exercise of the franchise. It may say 'how, when and where' a ballot shall be cast," Judge Everett Mitchell wrote in his decision. "But regulations of the elective franchise must be reasonable...The right includes the right to have a ballot counted."
The judge's ruling comes after 23 people in Madison didn't have their ballots counted back in April.
A poll worker had the ballots on Election Day, but was delayed, and delivered the ballots to their polling places after the 8pm deadline.
Originally, the Wisconsin Elections Commission ordered that the ballots not be counted.
The judge on Wednesday reversed that decision.
But Judge Mitchell did put limits on which late ballots will be counted.
“A voter who contributed to the delay is not faultless,” Mitchell wrote. “The postal service, a partner, or a friend is not an election official. A ballot that arrives at the clerk’s office too late to be delivered by 8:00 p.m. was not timely returned.”
That is an important distinction. Many Wisconsin election clerks say they are seeing a number of mail-in ballots that come in after Election Day because of delays in the mail. The Elections Commission said between 5% and 10% of clerks have reported delayed mail deliveries from the Post Office.
The late-ballots in April were not the first time voters in Dane County had their votes ignored. In 2024’s November election, Madison’s former clerk ignored nearly 200 absentee ballots that were found in a closet. Those ballots were also not counted. Those voters also sued.
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