Judge rules Wisconsin absentee voters for August primary cannot void ballots and request a new one

Wisconsin voters who have sent in their absentee ballots for the state’s August 11 primary will not be allowed to void the ballot and request a new one, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The ruling is relevant and considered a defeat for the state’s Democrats, who filed a lawsuit seeking to allow that to happen. 

The suit was filed after Democratic Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, the frontrunner at the time for governor, withdrew from the race on July 17. As of July 29, more than 117,000 absentee ballots have been returned, and the Democrats are worried that many might have been cast for either Rodriguez or former state economic development director Missy Hughes, who dropped out in June, according to The Epoch Times. 

Rodriguez dropped out after firing her campaign manager upon learning that her campaign fund was hundreds of thousands of dollars short of what she had thought. 

The next day, July 18, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who had dropped out of the race 10 days earlier and endorsed Rodriguez, re-entered the race. 

And on Thursday, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, D-Wis., also dropped out of the race, saying, "It's become very clear who our nominee is gonna be," referring to the democratic socialist candidate Madison state Rep. Francesca Hong. "We have to do everything to beat Tom Tiffany."

That leaves only Crowley, Hong, Madison state Sen. Kelda Roys, and former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan.

The Republican chair of the elections commission, Don Millis, approved of the judge’s ruling. “The law is clear. Once a voter returns an absentee ballot to the clerk, the voter cannot decide to change his or her vote. The law does not permit do-overs,” Millis said.