MADISON Wisc. (CBS 58) — The Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously voted on Thursday to send a letter to the Postmaster General regarding mail delays on Election Day. This comes after several clerks across the state reported absentee ballots not arriving on time during the April election. 

When the Wisconsin Elections Commission or WEC surveyed clerks across the state, nearly two-thirds of them reported problems with the mail. That includes election officials in Milwaukee, who say 269 ballots weren’t counted due to mail delays.

That same survey done by WEC found that half of clerks received complaints and concerns from their voters too. 

“It’s not uncommon for us to receive ballots after election day that fact that we received so little on election day and then so many after election day is highly unusual,” Paulina Gutiérrez, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission.

That was the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, Paulina Gutiérrez, speaking a few days after the April election. She, like many clerks, reported issues with the mail. According to WEC, many clerks across the state reported that mail-in ballots took seven to 10 business days to arrive rather than the standard three to five.

“We wanted the Post Master to know that we had these concerns.. we had documented these concerns and that is we were to provide him with the dates of our elections that he could give special instructions for the handling of election mail,” Ann Jacobs, chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said.

The commission said they heard from the Postal Service about the delays. USPS told WEC one reason mail was late is because they didn’t have as many transport options. In previous elections, special circumstances were imposed that allowed them to approve more overtime. Due to budget constraints, the post office wasn’t able to approve that, which is why WEC is also sending the letter to Wisconsin’s elected officials in Washington.

“We are sending a copy of that letter to our senators and representatives of the state of Wisconsin with the hopes that they, because they control the purse strings, can work with the postmaster general to make sure that there is proper funding,” Jacobs said.

Around 300 of Wisconsin’s 1,850 clerks responded to the survey, so it’s unclear how many ballots in the state weren’t able to be counted due to mail delays. WEC is hopeful this issue will be fixed by the primary election in August. If you would like to read the letter, click and the survey results click here and scroll down to page 290.