MADISON – Madison voters are suing city and county election officials over their failure to count 193 absentee ballots cast during the 2024 presidential election.
Represented by liberal law firm Law Forward, the voters are accusing the Madison clerk of disenfranchising their right to vote in a class-action lawsuit the group is preparing.
“Many of these uncounted votes belonged to University of Wisconsin students in downtown Madison. The students were voting in their very first presidential election and perhaps one of the most consequential elections of their lives,” Jeff Mandell, general counsel of Law Forward, said in a statement.
“Some of them had worked hard to turn out the vote during this election cycle. Although their votes were all cast diligently and properly, none of their votes were counted. The harm they suffered is significant and cannot be repaired.”
On Dec. 26, the Madison clerk’s office issued a public statement disclosing that 193 ballots hadn’t been processed from three wards. The ballots were discovered Nov. 12 and Dec. 3 during post-election cleanup and reconciliation.
The number of ballots wasn’t enough to affect the outcome of any races on the ballot in those areas, the clerk’s office said.
The clerk’s office emailed the commission Dec. 18 to inform it of the uncounted ballots and ask for guidance. The commission certified the results of the election Nov. 29.
The clerk’s office said it would contact each affected voter to notify them and apologize. For future elections, the office also said every polling location will receive a list of the seal numbers for absentee ballot envelopes, so they can be verified as ballots are counted.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted in January to use its investigative authority for the first time in its eight-year history to understand how the ballots went uncounted in the Nov. 5 election.
Commissioners will discuss the review’s findings at a future meeting.
Molly Beck can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Madison voters to sue over uncounted absentee ballots in 2024 election
