Circuit Court Judge Hears Arguments Regarding "Ballot Spoiling" in Wisconsin

Wednesday, August 30th, 2023 -- 11:00 AM

(By Anya van Wagtendonk, Wisconsin Public Radio) A circuit court judge heard arguments Monday about whether to make Wisconsin's ban on "ballot spoiling" permanent.

According to Anya van Wagtendonk with Wisconsin Public Radio, the case of Nancy Kormanik vs. Wisconsin Elections Commission was resolved last October with a temporary ban on the practice, in which an absentee voter can request to have their ballot invalidated on or before election day in order to vote again or fix mistakes in their original vote.

The temporary order prohibited the elections commission from "advising, guiding, instructing, publishing, or otherwise communicating information related to spoiling absentee ballots and/or returning absentee ballots to electors" in ways not laid out by state law.

The conservative law group that filed the lawsuit has moved to make that ban permanent. In Waukesha County Circuit Court on Monday, the plaintiff's lawyer argued that ballot spoiling is only allowed under very specific circumstances, and that the state elections commission had illegally expanded the practice.

"Essentially, what this boils down to is the Commission's position that electors can 'revote' after already fully completing the absentee ballot voting process," said Kurt Goehre, an attorney representing Kormanik.

Goehre said a voter can spoil their ballot if it is still in his or her possession, but that a voter cannot ask to invalidate a ballot after it's been filed to a clerk. Attorneys for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee and RISE, a progressive group that organizes young voters, argued that voters should be able to use the best available information when casting their ballot.

"The overarching principle of the election statutes is to advance the will of the electors," attorney Charles Curtis, representing the Democratic National Committee, argued. "To allow an elector – when a vote has not been cast yet, when a ballot has not been cast – to say, 'I made a mistake, and I'd like to obtain a new replacement ballot,' that does better advance the will of the electorate."

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