Swansenreport

Wisconsin voters who already mailed or hand-delivered their absentee ballots for the August 11 primary cannot take them back — not even if their candidate has since dropped out of the race. The Wisconsin Elections Commission made that official on July 9, voting 4-2 to bar what’s known as ballot spoiling once a ballot has been returned to a clerk. It’s a reversal, and not a small one. For years the commission itself argued against this exact position in court.

The vote broke along mostly familiar lines, but not entirely. Democratic commissioner Carrie Riepl, a former municipal clerk, joined the panel’s three Republicans to approve the guidance. Fellow Democrats Mark Thomsen and Ann Jacobs voted no. Thomsen didn’t hold back at the meeting. “Just because I put it in the mail doesn’t mean I can’t fix my mistake,” he said, arguing that a ballot isn’t really “returned” until it’s tabulated. Commission chair Don Millis, a Republican, saw it differently. Once you’ve turned it in, he said, that’s it.

The timing is what makes this a story instead of a footnote. The commission adopted the new rule on July 9 — one day after Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped out of the governor’s race and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. Just over a week later, Rodriguez withdrew too, after disclosing that her campaign finance reports were off by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Crowley jumped back in that Saturday, this time with Gov. Tony Evers behind him. Both Rodriguez and Crowley’s suspended-then-revived candidacies will still appear on the ballot; they missed the deadline to be removed. So will Missy Hughes, who dropped out earlier in the summer.

By the time the commission voted, more than 36,000 voters had already returned ballots. That number had grown to nearly 68,000 by the time Rodriguez dropped out, and to more than 71,000 as of Monday morning. Some unknown share of those voters cast a ballot for a candidate who, by primary day, won’t be running at all.

None of this is entirely new territory for Wisconsin. A nearly identical fight broke out in 2022, when several candidates dropped out of a crowded U.S. Senate primary. Conservative voter Nancy Kormanik sued that August, arguing state law never allowed clerks to reissue a ballot just because a voter changed their mind or their candidate quit the race. A Waukesha County judge agreed and banned the practice; that ban held until this February, when an appeals court threw out the lower court’s ruling — not on the merits, but because Kormanik’s side had failed to properly serve a legislative committee. The underlying legal question, in other words, has never actually been resolved on its merits. It just got reset to zero.

That reset put the commission back in the position of deciding what to tell county and municipal clerks with a primary bearing down. WEC didn’t reissue its old guidance right away. It waited until May 7, then approved new guidance May 27, then revisited it again July 9 after hearing from clerks confused about how to handle requests. What it landed on effectively restores the 2022 court-imposed rule: an absentee ballot can only be spoiled for an “accident or mistake,” a phrase Millis has defined narrowly. Filling in the wrong bubble, or spilling coffee on the thing, counts. A candidate dropping out doesn’t.

Reaction split along predictable lines but wasn’t limited to Madison. Jeff Mandell of the liberal law firm Law Forward called the timing unusual, noting courts are typically skeptical of election-rule changes made close to voting. He doesn’t expect this to be the last word. Sam Liebert of All Voting is Local pointed to a wrinkle that cuts across party lines: an Election Day voter who messes up a ballot at the polls can get up to three do-overs, while an absentee voter now gets none once the ballot’s back in the clerk’s hands — even if Election Day is weeks away. U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan called the rule “undemocratic with a small d.” State Sen. Kelda Roys, herself a candidate in the race, wrote on social media that the situation is “a huge problem for democracy.” Michigan, by contrast, lets voters spoil a returned ballot right up to its own deadline — a rule already put to use there after a U.S. Senate candidate dropped out of an August primary.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has also weighed in directly, sending a letter to the commission asking it to rescind the July guidance. The party’s full argument isn’t yet public in a form we can independently verify or quote, and the commission hadn’t responded as of this writing.

Sources:
Wisconsin Elections Commission, Updated Ballot Spoiling Guidance, July 10, 2026: https://elections.wi.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Clerk%20Communication%20-%20UPDATED%20Ballot%20Spoiling%20Guidance%20-%207.10.26.pdf
Votebeat Wisconsin, “Can Wisconsin voters void a returned absentee ballot? Issue could head back to court,” July 21, 2026: https://www.votebeat.org/wisconsin/2026/07/21/absentee-ballot-spoiling-elections-commission-guidance-reversal/
WPR, “What happens if I voted early for a candidate who dropped out? Can I change my vote?” July 21, 2026: https://www.wpr.org/news/can-i-change-my-vote
CBS 58, “New WEC guidance: No do-overs if you already turned in your absentee ballot,” July 10, 2026: https://www.cbs58.com/news/new-wec-guidance-no-do-overs-if-you-already-turned-in-your-absentee-ballot
Democracy Docket, Wisconsin Absentee Ballot Spoiling Guidance Challenge case tracker: https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/wisconsin-absentee-ballot-spoiling-guidance-challenge/