(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin League of Women Voters filed a lawsuit in Dane County on Friday asking the court to allow Wisconsin voters who believe their absentee ballots won’t be counted by Election Day to vote using a provisional ballot.
The lawsuit, filed by Law Forward, said that delays from the U.S. Postal Service can interfere with delivery of ballots by the deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day.
“Wisconsin voters who have reason to believe that their mailed absentee ballots will not arrive in time to be counted (“Impacted Voters”) are prohibited by Defendants from remedying this issue by going to the polls to exercise their fundamental right to vote,” the lawsuit states. “This rule risks denying Impacted Voters their right to vote – the right most preservative of all others.”
The lawsuit also lists League of Women Voters member Barbara Feeney as a plaintiff.
The lawsuit came the day after Gov. Tony Evers and Sen. Tammy Baldwin sent a joint letter to U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner and the USPS Board of Governors asking that postal delays are corrected to prevent the delay of absentee ballots.
“Hundreds of absentee ballots received by the Postal Service before Wisconsin’s spring election were delivered after Election Day, preventing them from being counted,” the letter said. “Now, USPS is rushing to implement President Trump’s unconstitutional executive order that would, at best, significantly delay Wisconsinites’ mailed ballots from reaching election officials and, at worst, allow the USPS to prevent a Wisconsin voter’s fully legal, timely ballot from being counted at all.
“We call on the Postal Service to immediately resolve the issues that delayed ballots during Wisconsin’s spring election, withdraw the rule that will add significant additional delays in ballot delivery, and ensure preparations for Wisconsin’s fall elections prioritizes timely delivery of election mail.”
The letter says that 500,000 Wisconsinites used mail-in ballots in 2024, accounting for 15% of all votes cast. There were 218,000 mailed absentee ballots for the 2026 spring election.
