Wisconsin GOP advised officials not to count late-arriving ballots, raising possibility of legal challenge
An attorney for the Republican Party of Wisconsin told local officials ahead of a key vote last week that Madison should not count 23 absentee ballots from last week’s Supreme Court election that arrived at polling places after they had closed — a dispute that could set up a legal challenge.
The GOP weighed in hours before the Madison Board of Canvassers voted unanimously on Friday to count the affected ballots. On Monday, the Dane County Board of Canvassers followed suit, voting 2-1 to count the ballots. Election officials make these judgment calls all the time, and, historically, courts have allowed them. Officials are routinely called upon to address whether a witness address is complete, whether a damaged ballot can still be counted, or the like. These issues are usually resolved locally and without controversy.
But disputes like this — over how to interpret the law and whether late-arriving ballots should count — are harder to contain. Experts say leaving those decisions to individual counties risks inconsistent outcomes across Wisconsin, especially in a high-stakes election season.
Rick Hasen, an election law professor at UCLA, said that kind of patchwork approach is a recipe for conflict.
“This is not tenable in the current political atmosphere,” Hasen said.
https://www.votebeat.org/wisconsin/2026/04/14/madison-dane-county-late-arriving-ballots-supreme-court-election-republican-lawsuit/