Liberal voting group challenges Wisconsin's witness requirement for absentee voters

MADISON — A national voting-focused liberal law firm is turning to a federal judge in an effort to eliminate a requirement for Wisconsin voters to have a witness sign absentee ballot envelopes in order for the votes to count.

The Elias Law Group filed a lawsuit in the Western District U.S. District Court on Monday that argues the state law violates the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits requiring voters to prove their qualifications in order to vote.

The federal lawsuit follows a similar challenge the group brought to the Wisconsin Supreme Court earlier this year following Justice Janet Protasiewicz's election in April, which flipped the court to liberal control.

Requiring absentee voters to state their qualifications and having the witness attest to those qualifications is a violation of the law, the group argued.

"The mere act of complying with the requirement is a substantial burden on Plaintiffs’ right to vote," the complaint said. "The largest share of absentee ballot rejections occurs in Wisconsin’s largest municipalities, which are also the municipalities that have the largest shares of minority voters, recently naturalized voters and student voters."

The complaint was made on behalf of four Wisconsin voters who find it difficult to get a witness due to circumstances like health risks, living alone or frequently traveling overseas.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission and the city clerks of Brookfield, Madison and Janesville are named in the lawsuit. A WEC spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

The group is also challenging a Waukesha County judge's finding that clerks cannot fill in missing information like witness addresses. That lawsuit, which also aims at a ruling that banned voters from using drop boxes to return absentee ballots, is now before the state Supreme Court's new liberal majority.

Clerks often cite instances of absentee voters who fail to complete the witness address and signature fields on the absentee envelope.

A new ballot envelope design approved by WEC in August would add a warning icon to the witness certification section to reduce errors. The new designs would be put into use beginning in the February 2024 spring primary.

The complaint argues cities in Wisconsin have adopted "different and inconsistent standards" for witness addresses, resulting in an "ongoing threat that [voters] will be disenfranchised because of shifting local interpretations" of the requirement.

Two years ago, state auditors reviewed nearly 15,000 absentee ballots from 29 municipalities cast during the 2020 election. More than 1,000 envelopes, or 7% of those sampled, had partial addresses for witnesses. Most of those were missing a ZIP code but included other parts of the address.

Fifteen lacked witness addresses entirely, eight lacked witness signatures and three lacked voter signatures. Envelopes without signatures should not be counted under state law.

Hope Karnopp can be reached at hkarnopp@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Federal lawsuit challenges witness requirement for absentee voters