The leader of the Wisconsin Elections Commission said a judge had created a headache Thursday by making last-minute changes to how absentee ballots will be counted.
“This is a mess,” said Dean Knudson, the chairman of the commission.
At issue is a decision by U.S. District Judge William Conley that kept Tuesday’s election on track for those who vote in person but will allow absentee voters to return their ballots until April 13.
State law requires clerks to report unofficial returns on election night, and commissioners don’t want that to start happening on Tuesday when only a portion of ballots will have been counted.
“The Commission wishes to avoid changing results being publicized each night during the tabulation period,” Daniel Lenz, an attorney for the commission, wrote in a Thursday-night letter to the judge.
The commission asked that the judge clarify his order to ensure that results won’t be published until April 13, after all ballots have been returned….
Conley allowed absentee ballots to be returned after Tuesday because tens of thousands of voters likely won’t receive them until after election day. He determined that if they requested their ballots on time, they should be able to cast them.
Shortly after he issued his order, the state and national arms of the Republican Party filed an appeal seeking to block the bulk of Conley’s ruling.
“The court’s last-minute injunction substantially interferes with the integrity of Wisconsin’s election, grants relief that no plaintiff requested, changes the rules for completing absentee ballots in the middle of an election, creates voter confusion, and plainly conflicts with binding precedent,” wrote attorney Patrick Strawbridge.