Dane County judge plans to sign revised order on absentee ballot witness addresses

[RandySF]

A Dane County Court court order will soon be updated to reflected an earlier appeals court ruling over when absentee ballots can be counted in Wisconsin.

That’s after the state’s court of appeals sided mostly with a progressive group this summer when it agreed to a broader understanding of when a witness’ address is detailed enough for an absentee ballot to be counted.

Under state law, absentee ballot envelopes must be signed by an adult witness who provides their address. But the law doesn’t define what that address should look like.

In 2022, a Waukesha Circuit Court judge ruled that clerks could no longer continue the practice of filling in missing information from an absentee ballot witness certificate, a practice known as ballot curing.


https://www.wpr.org/news/dane-county-judge-to-sign-revised-order-absentee-ballot-witness-addresses

[moniss]

1. Many years ago

I remember a local election that was almost tied. So there was a recount. They went over the absentee ballots. One elderly couple received a 2 hour interrogation in their home by the police, the city attorney and an attorney for the incumbent. The wife was in very fragile health and had filled out her ballot but on the envelope there was a spot for her to initial and the husband had written her initials because she forgot. They browbeat them about election fraud and the recount tossed their ballot.

I remember years back in one little township the Town Chairman and Town Clerk had been the same people forever. They would get challengers but never lost the count. It turns out they were the ones doing the counting. As soon as enough of the townspeople were convinced that somebody should "observe" the count along with them guess who got a new Chairman and Clerk the next time the votes were counted?