Wisconsin Supreme Court Won't Decide Whether Voters Can "Spoil" Absentee Ballots, but Litigation Will Continue
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court this afternoon declined to take up a case that centers on whether voters can discard their previously submitted absentee ballots and cast a new one — a process known as ballot “spoiling.”
Instead, the case will first be reviewed by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, after which the state Supreme Court may decide to take up an appeal of the suit in the future. At this time, it remains uncertain as to whether the court of appeals will hear the case and issue a ruling before the state’s Aug. 13 primary elections or Nov. 5 general election.
From 2014 up until October 2022, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) on multiple occasions issued guidance that authorized an absentee voter who had already returned their ballot to contact a local election clerk, request the ballot back, spoil the old ballot and subsequently cast a new one.
In a set of guidance promulgated ahead of the state’s August 2022 partisan primary, WEC noted that it would allow for the spoiling of absentee ballots in light of an uptick in requests from voters to cast new ballots after changing their minds or making an error. Under WEC’s guidance, absentee voters who cast ballots in the state’s primary election for a candidate who dropped out of a race before Election Day could spoil their ballots and cast a new one for an active candidate.
However, following a lawsuit brought by the conservative legal group known as Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, a Wisconsin judge temporarily blocked WEC’s absentee ballot spoiling guidance ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/wisconsin-supreme-court-wont-decide-whether-voters-can-spoil-absentee-ballots-but-litigation-will-continue/
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