Wisconsin city’s mailing of duplicate absentee ballots raises confusion, questions over elections

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — When the elections clerk in Wisconsin’s heavily Democratic capital city of Madison announced on Monday that duplicate absentee ballots had mistakenly been sent to around 2,000 voters, it ignited concerns about election integrity from a Republican congressman and others on the right.

Every vote is crucial in Wisconsin, a swing state that President Joe Biden won by just under 21,000 votes in 2020 and that former President Donald Trump won by just under 23,000 votes in 2016. The contest between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris is close this year as well, creating a hyperintense focus on how elections are run.

Madison is in the heart of liberal Dane County, where more than 75% of voters — more than 260,000 people — voted for Biden in 2020.

Because of Madison’s heavy Democratic tilt, any question about election integrity draws intense scrutiny from Republicans.

Here are some things to know about what happened with the duplicate ballots and the reaction to the error.

How did the public find out about the error?

Madison’s city clerk who runs elections, Maribeth Witzel-Behl, posted a statement online on Monday night explaining that up to 2,000 duplicate absentee ballots had been sent in error. The statement blamed a data processing error and initially said that only voters in one ward were affected. The statement also said that barcodes on the ballots used to track them would ensure that only one ballot is counted.

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