(The Center Square) – Voters in Wisconsin are not going to get a chance to cast another ballot ahead of next month’s election.
The state’s Elections Commission recently clarified rules for “spoiling” ballots cast for candidates who have dropped out.
“Once an absentee ballot has been returned to the municipal clerk, it cannot be spoiled and reissued for any reason,” the Commission wrote in a letter to the state’s local election clerks.
The decision is new, and a reversal from 2022 when the Elections Commission allowed voters to cast a “do-over” ballot in the state’s Democrat primary for U.S. Senate.
The commission said Wisconsin voters can still get a new ballot after a mistake but said voting for a candidate who drops out before Election Day does not count as a mistake.
“Wisconsin law allows a voter who, by accident or mistake, spoils or erroneously prepares a ballot to receive another ballot by returning the defective ballot to the municipal clerk or election inspector,” the Commission’s letter explained. “If a voter returns their voted ballot and later changes their mind about who they would like to vote for or because the candidate they originally voted for has dropped out of the race, this does not constitute an ‘accident or mistake.’ The ballot cannot be spoiled and reissued for any reason.”
Elections Commission chairman Don Millis told Milwaukee’s CBS affiliate that the guidance will hopefully eliminate the old case-by-case standard that some election managers used.
“We think it should be uniform,” Millis said. “Does it make sense for someone to be able to change their mind in, say, the city of Sun Prairie but not change their mind in the city of Milwaukee or West Bend?”
The Elections Commission is also offering new guidance on betting on elections.
Commissioner Ann Jacobs offered that reminder last week.
“If you bet on an election, you cannot vote in that election,” Jacobs wrote on X. “[And] prediction market betting is a bet under applicable Wisconsin law per the Wisconsin Election Commission.”
“As a policy, the prohibition on betting in an election makes sense. You want people voting based on who they think would be the best person for the job, not based on making money from a given person’s election (or loss),” she added. “This also makes for an interesting situation: In theory, if people follow the prohibition (as they should), the only people betting on a Wisconsin election will be people NOT voting in the election. Who may therefore be the least-likely to have accurate knowledge of the election.”
Early voting for the August primary has already begun, Election Day itself isn’t until Aug. 11.
