State to mail 2.7M ballot request forms
Voters can return paperwork to get absentee ballots
MADISON - State election officials signed off Wednesday on a plan to send absentee ballot request forms to most registered voters despite a last-minute push by a Republican lawmaker to halt the effort.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission, which consists of three Republicans and three Democrats, unanimously agreed to send 2.7 million registered voters forms they can use to have absentee ballots sent to them for the Nov. 3 presidential election.
No one will be sent an absentee ballot unless they specifically ask for one.
Ahead of the vote, GOP Rep. Rick Gundrum of Slinger called the $2.25 million plan too costly and said it could lead to voter confusion. In a letter, he asked the commission to let each community decide for itself how it wants to handle absentee ballots.
“Municipal clerks are more acquainted with each of their respective communities and are better suited to handle absentee ballot requests in the manner in which they have in place,” he wrote.
Ten or more of his colleagues signed the letter, according to Gundrum’s office. Gundrum did not release a copy, so it was unclear who supported it.
Democratic Rep. Daniel Riemer of Milwaukee called Gundrum’s effort wrongheaded.
“I’m always deeply suspicious — and everyone should be very suspicious — of anyone, especially elected officials, who are advocating for something that seemingly would reduce voter participation,” he said. “And they can draw their own inferences about the motivation behind that.”
Gundrum’s attempt to stop the effort failed soon after he sent his letter. The commission gave preliminary approval of its plan three weeks ago and signed off Wednesday on the final wording of the mailing.
The letters that accompany the form will also include instructions about how to request absentee ballots in person or with the state’s online portal,
myvote.wi.gov.
“You Have Three Ways to Vote in the Election on November 3, 2020,” the letter says, detailing how to vote at the polls, at an early voting site or by mail. The mailing will be sent by Sept. 1. Mail voting set a record in Wisconsin for the April election for state Supreme Court, when nearly 1 million people voted that way as they sought to limit their exposure to the coronavirus. Mail voting is expected to be even higher in November because voter turnout is at its peak during presidential elections.
The decision to promote mail voting is being watched closely because Wisconsin is a presidential battleground.
President Donald Trump, who
narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016, is deeply suspicious of mail voting and has alleged without evidence that it contributes to voter fraud. Despite his opposition to the practice, many Wisconsin Republicans have gotten behind the idea this year.
Meagan Wolfe, the executive director of the commission, last week said sending the applications widely would not lead to voter fraud. Anyone can send in an application, but absentee ballots will be provided only to those who are registered to vote. (Most voters also have to provide a copy of their photo ID the first time they seek an absentee ballot by mail.)
The mailing will not go to those who have already requested absentee ballots and those who are believed to have moved since they last voted. Everyone else on the state’s voter rolls will be sent the mailing.
The mailing is a statewide response to ones sent locally for the April election by Whitefish Bay and Bayside. Before the state settled on its plan, Milwaukee and other communities were developing plans to send absentee ballot applications to their voters.
The mailing will be funded using part of a $7.3 million grant that Congress gave Wisconsin to deal with higher election costs during the pandemic.
Also Wednesday, the commission rejected a proposal by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty to bar individuals and groups from gathering absentee ballots from voters and delivering them to clerks.
Republicans supported the rules and Democrats opposed them. But after it was clear the commissioners would split along party lines, Republicans joined with Democrats to reject the rules, saying that would clear the way for the institute to sue.
Republicans argued that without rules there is a risk that partisan groups would engage in what they called ballot harvesting. Those groups may try to toss ballots if they think they include votes for the opposing party, they said.
Democrats called that unlikely and noted state law makes it illegal to throw out someone else’s ballot.