Wisconsin:
Absentee Voters' Rights
Protecting Absentee Voters' Rights
Fair Elections Center along with Wisconsin-based Law Forward, filed a complaint on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin in Dane County Circuit Court, seeking both clarity and protection for absentee voters whose ballots have technical defects. Following a September 7 ruling in Waukesha County Circuit Court in White v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, the WEC’s long-standing guidance on curing minor witness address defects has been barred and withdrawn. This has left absentee voters vulnerable to disenfranchisement.
The denial of the right to vote for the omission of certain witness address components, like state names and zip codes, would violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s prohibition on denying a vote based on immaterial omission or error. And the lack of notice to voters whose ballots are threatened with rejection to a defective witness address violates the U.S. Constitution’s due process requirements.
LEGAL DOCUMENTS
PRESS
Press Release -- League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Files Challenge to Protect Absentee Voters' Rights (9.30.22)