Many Wisconsin absentee ballots were not postmarked, putting votes at risk of not being counted

[RandySF]

Hundreds of absentee ballots mailed back to the City of Madison for Tuesday's election may not be counted, thanks to a missing postmark.

The problem is one that is emerging in communities across Wisconsin as election officials prepare to tally the results of an election conducted during the coronavirus pandemic. Results for the state Supreme Court and other races are to be released Monday.

The issue has surfaced because of a surge in mail voting and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the eve of the election that requires absentee ballots to be postmarked by election day, April 7, if they arrive after that.

Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said that so far her office has received more than 8,000 absentee ballots in her office. Of those, 682 have no postmark, meaning that it's likely that they won't be counted.

She said that seeing the ballots come in without the postmark has been frustrating, especially since the ballots that came in on Wednesday were likely mailed before Tuesday.





https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2020/04/10/wisconsin-election-votes-may-not-count-ballots-without-postmark/5123238002/

[lettucebe]

1. How is that even possible?

Were they not run through the USPS machines correctly?

[RandySF]

5. I'm not a conspracy theorist by nature.

But I wouldn't put it past Trump to have USPS spoil Democratic ballots to help Wisconsin Republicans keep the State Supreme Court seat.

[Blue Owl]

7. Exactly

And to bolster his anti-voting-by-mail bullshit...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Could be stupid workers thinking gubmt mail doesn't need postmarking or purposeful ratfucking. . nt

[LisaM]

2. If they were delivered by a letter carrier, it seems that they could find a solution.

Have the letter carriers sign a declaration or something.

[bluestarone]

3. Why the fuck is there ALWAYS something that

Fucks these elections up? On purpose or what?

[gratuitous]

4. Remember back, way long ago?

The United States used to be a bulwark of democracy, and we'd send observers to other countries where their elections were suspect. No really, we used to do that! Now we have our very own elections that wouldn't pass muster under a heinous dictator. Ballots "lost," mail-in ballots that somehow didn't get postmarked, absentee ballots that failed to get into the mail to their intended recipients. But I'll bet all these mishaps are just totally random with no identifiable pattern. You know, like missing ballots that just coincidentally didn't get mailed to Democratic voter strongholds?

[GemDigger]

6. I wonder if they were hand delivered to a ballot drop off place.

Something stinks in Denmark.

[appalachiablue]

8. Whose responsibility is the postmark for crissakes?

[RandySF]

9. The USPS.

[appalachiablue]

12. That's what I thought but I don't usually look at postmarks

much or notice whether the item is marked.

[Takket]

11. completely illigitimate election. i bet the rethug wins the court seat by roughly the amount of

discarded ballots.