Legal Battles Over Ballots in Wisconsin Continue

Friday, November 4th, 2022 -- 11:01 AM

(AP) A Wisconsin appeals court and a circuit judge this week shot down attempts backed by liberals seeking orders that local election clerks must accept absentee ballots that contain partial addresses of witnesses.

The rulings come within days of Tuesday's election and as more than 503,000 absentee ballots have already either been returned or cast in person. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson are both up for reelection in the battleground state.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed leading up to the election focused on which absentee ballots can be counted or rejected. The status quo for determining whether an absentee ballot has enough of a witness address to count remains as it has been for the past 56 years, Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas said in an order Wednesday.

Wisconsin elections have been conducted, and absentee ballots counted, the past 56 years without a legally binding definition of what constitutes a witness address on a ballot, Colas wrote in his order.

Current guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission is that an address must include three elements: a street number, street name and municipality.

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