Absentee ballot for the April 7, 2020, election. (PHOTO: Courtesy of Fox 11 WLUK)
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The U.S. Postal Service is addressing undelivered absentee ballots during the Wisconsin spring primary in a report published Friday.
Of the 1.3 million absentee ballot requests received by the Wisconsin Elections Commission for April’s election, 749 of those absentee ballots never made it Fox Valley voters or the ballot arrived too late to count, according to the report.
A Postal Service representative told FOX 11 they were “waiting for some information,” and would call back to do an interview when they received it.
That call never came Monday.
In May, the Elections Commission said the Postal Service indicated 1,600 ballots meant for Appleton and Oshkosh voters never made it by election day. The Postal Service’s report does not explain this discrepancy in numbers, and the Elections Commission did not return FOX 11’s request for an interview.
The report says in Appleton, city officials gave a third-party mailer absentee ballots the day before the election. That third-party mailer delivered three tubs of absentee ballots to the postal service at 6 p.m. on election day. The report says as a result, those ballots were not mailed out until after the election.
Appleton City Clerk Kami Lynch did not reply to FOX 11’s request for an interview.
The report does not say why some Oshkosh voters claim they never got their ballot.
City Manager Mark Rohloff denied FOX 11’s request for an interview Monday.
“We had over 10,000 ballot requests that we mailed out, and our records show that we had sent all of them out,” Rohloff told FOX 11 in April.
The report provides four recommendations for the postal service:
- Develop a communication plan with the Elections Commission.
- Ensure all mail facilities are using the political mail log to record ballots.
- Ensure election offices are aware of proper ballot mailing processes.
- Develop an “action plan” to address potential national problems, such as postmarks and tracking technology.
FOX 11 will continue to follow up with the Postal Service for more answers.
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