Court says Madison can be liable for disenfranchising voters
A Dane County judge on Monday rejected the city of Madison’s claim that absentee voting’s characterization in state law as a “privilege” precludes damages against the city for disenfranchising 193 voters, and ruled that Madison can face potential financial liability for the error.
In rejecting motions by the city and other defendants to dismiss the case, Dane County Circuit Court Judge David Conway said that a state law describing absentee voting as a privilege does not mean absentee ballots receive less constitutional protection than votes cast in person.
“That right to vote,” Conway wrote, “would be a hollow protection if it did not also include the right to have one’s vote counted.”
Conway also rejected former Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl’s legal argument that there is a meaningful legal difference between intentionally not counting votes and mistakenly failing to count them due to human error. He held that state law allows for people to seek damages against election officials who “negligently deprive citizens of the right to vote.”
https://www.votebeat.org/wisconsin/2026/02/09/madison-dane-county-judge-rules-absentee-voting-a-right/
