MADISON – Wisconsin election officials are reminding voters of the correct date of the April 1 spring election after receiving reports of third-party groups sending misleading mailers and other campaign materials with the wrong election date.
In one case, some Wisconsin voters have received postcards designed to appear to support liberal state Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford and telling voters to vote in an April 11 election — 10 days after the real election date. Some of the mailers are handwritten, sent from other states like California, Connecticut and New York, and at least one used the wrong first name for Crawford.
A mailer to voters in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election notes the wrong election date, prompting state election officials to remind voters of the correct date.
Crawford and conservative Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimel are competing in the nationally watched race for whether liberals or conservatives will hold a majority on the court.
More: Testy moments, abortion and billionaires. Takeaways from the Wisconsin Supreme Court debate
“Voters should be cautious about any unofficial voting-related communications — including text messages, emails, mailers, phone calls, robocalls, postcards, and more — from unfamiliar sources,” Wisconsin Elections Commission officials wrote in a press release Friday.
“Sometimes, these misleading communications even appear to mimic communications from an official government source. They often use outdated, incomplete, or simply inaccurate data that they communicate to voters.”
The mailers aren’t the first time Wisconsin voters have received misleading information about election dates.
In 2024, Apple’s voice-enabled digital assistant Siri provided wrong information when asked about the date of Wisconsin’s Republican presidential primary.
In Wisconsin, both parties voted April 2, 2024. While Siri correctly said the Democratic primary is April 2, it said the Republican primary is April 3 about a month ahead of the election. The issue was fixed well before Election Day.
March 27 is the last day for most voters to request an absentee ballot for the April 1 spring election. But because the deadline creates an unrealistic timeframe to get ballots back to clerks in time to be counted, Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe said Friday she recommends voters request a ballot as soon as possible at myvote.wi.gov.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Supreme Court election mailers giving wrong election date
