Douglas County ballot error listing incorrect Assembly race could affect 700 voters

MADISON — Ballots printed for the Town of Summit, in Douglas County, contained the wrong Assembly district, County Clerk Kaci Jo Lundgren said in a news release Tuesday afternoon, leaving no time to print new ballots for residents voting in Tuesday's primary.

The town has about 700 registered voters.

More: Live updates: Wisconsin heads to polls Tuesday for 2024 primary election, referendum questions

The ballots contained the state's 73rd Assembly District but should have instead contained the 74th as the result of changes under the state's new legislative maps. The 73rd District had a contested Democratic primary, and the 74th had a contested Republican primary.

In the 73rd, Angela Stroud defeated John Adams by nearly 5,000 votes. In the 74th, state Rep. Chanz Green fended off a challenge from Scott Harbridge, winning by nearly 970 votes.

According to the county clerk, candidates were notified, all other races on the ballot were listed correctly, and all other Douglas County ballots were correct.

Lundgren said there was no plan to issue corrected ballots on Election Day because there wasn't time to print new ones, absentee ballots have already been circulating for weeks and voting equipment had already been programmed and tested. Voters should proceed as planned, she said, but should contact the county clerk's office with any questions.

All other votes cast on the Town of Summit ballots, aside from the Assembly race, will count, Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe told reporters on a call Tuesday afternoon.

"My office is committed to transparency and accuracy. Our protocols will be thoroughly reviewed and any procedures that are identified that could eliminate this type of error in the future will be implemented," Lundgren said in a statement.

The decision on how to handle the issue is under the jurisdiction of the local clerk and the local board of canvassers, Wolfe said — however, the commission could eventually weigh in if a legal challenge is filed.

"I don't know what the remedies might look like that could be offered if this is something that's litigated," Wolfe said. "To my knowledge, I'm not aware of something happening quite like this, of there being any sort of precedent for exactly what happens in this situation."

State statutes "do not give us a road map" for the scenario, she said.

"The county clerk, the municipal clerk and the ballot canvassers, the chief inspectors, they're all going to have to work together in part of a public process to figure exactly what the best course of action is here," Wolfe said.

Wolfe said she wasn't aware of any identical issues in other parts of the state.

The best way for voters to verify that the ballot they've received includes the correct races is to check the state's elections website, myvote.wi.gov.

"We feel very confident in how the information was input into the statewide voter registration database, and that all the correct information would indeed be displaying for voters if they go to my vote.wi.gov," Wolfe said.

Jessie Opoien can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Douglas County ballot error could affect 700 voters