An investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the PBS series FRONTLINE and Columbia Journalism Investigations into Wisconsin’s missing ballot crisis reveals a system leaking from all sides, buckling under the weight of a global pandemic and partisan bickering that kept the logistics of Election Day up in the air until less than a day before polls opened.
Inadequate computer systems, overwhelmed clerks and misleading ballot information hampered Wisconsin’s historic — and historically troubling — spring election.
With the prospect of COVID-19 persisting into the fall and beyond, and more elections on the calendar ahead of the presidential ballot in November — which could produce triple the number of votes by mail — eyes will remain fixed on Wisconsin…
Election officials have largely blamed the U.S. Postal Service for many of the missing absentee ballots that forced some citizens to don masks and stand in line on Election Day this month, increasing their risk of contracting the potentially fatal disease COVID-19.
But the investigation by the Journal Sentinel, FRONTLINE and Columbia, based on interviews with voters, election officials and political experts, as well as responses from more than 600 people to an online questionnaire, shows the problems went far beyond mailing issues.
People from nearly 100 Wisconsin cities and towns responded to the Journal Sentinel’s online request for readers to share their information if they did not receive their absentee ballots. Many said they tried requesting their absentee ballots multiple times.
Some people received too many ballots. Some received empty envelopes. Some gave up trying to navigate the state’s request system. Others got their ballots after Election Day.
Three people — two in Mequon and one in West Allis — said they were mailed duplicate ballots. In Wauwatosa, one couple said they received envelopes with no ballots.
In Milwaukee, three would-be voters said they received a form letter from Mayor Tom Barrett thanking them for requesting an absentee ballot — but not the ballot itself.
Officials sent ballots to college students to dorms they had been forced to vacate. For some Wisconsin residents wintering in New Mexico and Florida, ballots simply never showed up.