Dane County Circuit Judge David Conway said guidance issued by Wisconsin’s elections commission was consistent with the law.
Voters in Wisconsin who have already sent in their absentee ballots for the state’s primary on Aug. 11 will not be allowed to void them and request a new ballot, a judge has ruled.
The July 29 ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge David Conway is a rebuff to the state’s Democrats, who filed a lawsuit in the wake of the withdrawal on July 17 of Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, a Democrat who was seen as the frontrunner in the race.
Democrats in Wisconsin are choosing a successor to Gov. Tony Evers, who turns 75 two days after the election in November and has opted against seeking a third term.
More than 117,000 absentee ballots had been returned by July 29, and the Democrats are concerned that many of those might have been cast for Rodriguez, or for former state economic development director Missy Hughes, who dropped out in June.
Rodriguez dropped out after firing her campaign manager when she discovered there were hundreds of thousands of dollars less in the campaign fund than had been expected.
“As we have continued to dig into our financial reports, it has become clear there are issues that would be an ongoing distraction,” Rodriguez said, adding that she could not allow it to “become a cloud over an election Democrats need to win.”
On July 18, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who had bowed out of the race 10 days earlier and endorsed Rodriguez, re-entered the contest after her departure.
Crowley is joined in the Democratic primary race by former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Madison state Rep. Francesca Hong, Madison state Sen. Kelda Roys, and former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan.
Democratic Socialist Ahead in Poll
A poll this week by Marquette Law School puts Hong, a Korean American who describes herself as a “proud democratic socialist,” at 38 percent, way ahead of Barnes and Crowley.
On July 9, the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 4–2 to distribute guidance to the 2,000 clerks who run the primaries, saying absentee voters cannot change their ballots after they have been mailed, a process known as ballot spoiling.
