Ballot misprint left Town of Summit residents unable to vote in State Assembly race, state law doesn’t offer solutions

A Republican candidate for the 74th Wisconsin Assembly district is calling for a new election after a ballot misprint resulted in more than 180 voters in Douglas County being unable to cast a ballot in his race. But state law is silent on how to remedy the situation. 

When voters went to the polls in the Douglas County Town of Summit Tuesday, their ballots listed the wrong state assembly race. Instead of the 74th Assembly district Republican primary, voters were presented with Democratic candidates vying in the 73rd Assembly District primary. 

A statement issued by Douglas County Clerk Kaci Jo Lundgren on election day said she became aware of the mistake Tuesday morning. She said Wisconsin’s new legislative voting maps had moved Summit from the 73rd District into the 74th. 

Lundgren said her office wouldn’t issue corrected ballots “or attempt another potential remedy” that day because there wasn’t enough time for new ballots to be printed and delivered in time, absentee ballots with the wrong assembly race “have been circulating for weeks” and voting tabulating machines had already been programmed and tested.

“After Election Day, Wisconsin law will likely prevent boards of canvass from being able to count votes in the Assembly District 73 race in the Town of Summit,” Lundgren said.

Lundgren told WPR she isn’t doing interviews with members of the media about the issue and referred to Tuesday’s statement. Summit’s town clerk referred WPR’s questions to Lundgren. 

On Thursday, 74th Assembly District Republican candidate Scott Harbridge of the Sawyer County Village of Radisson posted a statement on Facebook calling on “everyone who values our free election process and constitutional republic” to demand a new election.

“This is a crucial moment for our district,” said Harbridge. “The right to vote for the candidate of your choice is at the core of our free election process. When that right is compromised, we must take action.”

Harbridge also called for Lundgren’s resignation. 

Unofficial primary election results from across the 74th Assembly District show Harbridge came 968 votes short of defeating incumbent State Rep. Chanz Green, R-Grand View. Douglas County’s unofficial election results show a total of 188 people cast ballots in the Town of Summit. 

A subsequent Facebook post by Harbridge, Thursday, said that despite the gap, he’s not conceding the race and “checking out options” due to the misprint. The post also called for disbanding the Wisconsin Elections Commission, getting rid of voting tabulating machines and going back to hand counted paper ballots. 

When reached by WPR, Harbridge declined an interview until after he decides what course of action he’ll take. Rep. Green did not respond to a WPR request for comment on the error or call for a new election.

State law doesn’t offer solution for Summit voters

League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Executive Director Debra Cronmiller told WPR Wisconsin’s decentralized election system is run by 1,851 local clerks. She said mistakes can and do happen.

The same type of misprint that happened in Summit also happened in Green Bay, Cronmiller said, but it was spotted weeks before election day and corrected ballots were sent to absentee voters. 

Cronmiller said it was “a little frustrating” seeing Lundgren’s statement that there was nothing that could be done after the misprint was discovered on Tuesday. But she said she understands it. 

“The problem is the voters who voted absentee, we knew, did not have an opportunity to remedy (their ballots).” Cronmiller said. “It would only have been those polling place voters who came in subsequent to the programming change, and I think the clerk and the Council were just of the mind that that’s too risky.”

In short, she said the risk was having an election where only some residents were able to vote in the 74th district race.

Beyond that, said Cronmiller, state law doesn’t offer any solutions for the type of problem that happened in Douglas County. 

“No statutes really define what the process needs to be or should be or must be,” said Cronmiller.

As for Harbridge’s public call for a new election, Cronmiller said historically those decisions haven’t been made at the town or county clerk level.

“These decisions are made in the court,” Cronmiller said. 

As of Thursday, there was no evidence of a lawsuit from Harbridge filed in Douglas County. Neither the county’s district attorney’s office nor the clerk of court’s office had heard of any complaints filed as a result of the ballot error.

A statement from the American Civil Liberties Union Wisconsin sent to WPR said the organization is disappointed that the mistake in Douglas County “disenfranchised so many voters” and hopes it reminds election workers and administrators of the importance of robust preparation to avoid a similar situation in the future.

“Mistakes happen, but accountability must be taken, and officials must ensure something like this never happens again,” the statement said.