Disclosure of Unprocessed Absentee Ballots
posted
For Immediate Release
December 26, 2024
The City of Madison Clerk’s Office has discovered that a number of absentee ballots from the November 5, 2024 general election were not properly processed. 193 total ballots from Wards 56, 65 and 68 were discovered during post-election reconciliation and clean-up. The number of uncounted absentee ballots was not enough to affect the outcome of any race or referendum on the ballot.
The first set of absentee ballots were discovered when Clerk’s Office personnel emptied out the tabulator bins for Ward 65 and found one sealed courier bag containing 68 unprocessed absentee ballots, 67 for Ward 65 and 1 for Ward 68 (which was mis-sorted).
The second set were discovered when Clerk’s Office personnel began reconciling voter participation for Ward 56. Reconciliation, the process of comparing all counts and assigning participation in WisVote, begins immediately after the election. Clerks have 45 days to complete this process after a presidential election. During this process for Ward 56, Clerk’s Office personnel found two sealed absentee carrier envelopes containing a total of 125 unprocessed absentee ballots.
As specified by the reconciliation process, the Clerk’s Office informed the Wisconsin Elections Commission of the unprocessed ballots by December 20. In the interest of full transparency, we are also informing the public and will be contacting each of the voters affected individually to notify them. The Clerk’s Office will also be sending a letter to apology to all affected voters. Additional details about the process by which the ballots were found are in the attached memo to the Wisconsin Election Commission.
Moving forward, every polling location will receive a list of absentee envelope seal numbers that will be verified as counted on Election Day. The goal of the Clerk’s Office is that each eligible voter will be able to cast a ballot and have that ballot counted. Falling short of this goal for the November 2024 Election, we sincerely apologize to our voters and will strive to make sure this never happens again.
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