Ballot error in Douglas County could impact hundreds of votes

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Ballots that contained the wrong legislative district in the Town of Summit could impact hundreds of votes due to an error by the Douglas County clerk.

The ballots voters received in the Town of Summit listed the state's 73rd Assembly District instead of the 74th Assembly District. It's one of many districts that changed this year after the state Supreme Court adopted new legislative maps.

Voters who cast their ballot early or in-person Tuesday voted for a contested Democratic primary when they should have been voting for a Republican primary.

The error could disenfranchise 700 registered voters who live in the newly-drawn district.

Douglas County Clerk Kaci Jo Lundgren took responsibility for the mistake and noted there was confusion over the new voting maps that moved Summit from the 73rd to the 74th Assembly District.

"I missed it and it's my fault," Lundgren said. "I've taken steps to make sure it doesn't happen again…we have a lot of new staff, and I should have done more reviews."

Lundgren said there's no plan to issue new ballots because there isn't time to print them, and absentee ballots have already been circulating for weeks.

The candidates in both districts were notified of the error. All other races on the ballot were printed correctly, which means those votes will still count, Lundgren said.

The GOP candidates impacted include incumbent Chanz Green and Scott Harbridge, who faced off in the 74th District. Democrats Angela Stroud and John Adams squared off in the primary for the 73rd District.

As for a solution, those decisions must be made at the local level because there's no state law outlining how to address the issue, according to the state's top election official.

Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, told reporters the bipartisan commission could get involved if a legal challenge is filed.

"I don't know what the remedies might look like that could be offered if this is something that's litigated," Wolfe said. "To my knowledge, I'm not aware of something happening quite like this or there being a precedent for exactly what happens in this situation."

Harbridge said he believed the only fair outcome, if the race was close, would be to call for a special election across the district. He said it would be unacceptable to leave Town of Summit voters without a say in who represents them in the Assembly.

"That wouldn't be fair for either one of us," he said. "So, if it's close, I guess I feel right now, in my heart, that they'd have to do the whole election over again."

Green did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Lundgren said her office is bracing for lawsuits. She added her office has a lot of new staff, which underscores how many municipalities are training new employees with experienced clerks leaving the profession in recent years.

Harbridge said he believed the WEC should have been checking ballots, as well, to ensure they contained the right races.

"It sounds like [the mistake] was at least at the county level, but I believe the Wisconsin Elections Commission is supposed to review all the ballots and OK all the ballots, too" he said. "So even if it happened at the local level, it should've been caught."

According to state election law, county clerks are responsible for printing ballots with the proper races. The WEC is tasked with ensuring ballots across the state follow the proper format.  

Riley Vetterkind, a WEC spokesperson, said the state's WisVote database had the races properly aligned with the new maps. He confirmed if a voter in Summit had checked the MyVote website to pull up a sample ballot based on their address, it would've shown they should be voting in the 74th Assembly district, not the 73rd.