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The Badger State’s Ballot ‘Fix’ Was In

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mystery-ak:
The Badger State’s Ballot ‘Fix’ Was In

Wisconsin now appears to have the same legal problem as Pennsylvania. Will Badger State Republicans, who hold a significant majority in both the state house and senate, follow their lead?

By Julie Kelly
November 30, 2020

Nearly 7 million absentee votes were cast, mostly for Joe Biden, in the three states responsible for his presumptive win; a mere 250,000 votes now separate Biden from Donald Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Trump’s victory in that once solid “blue wall” in 2016—Wisconsin last elected a Republican president in 1984—shocked the nation and elevated him to the presidency. The pivotal Rust Belt states have something else in common: according to state election laws, mail-in ballots cannot be processed prior to 7 a.m. on Election Day. (Michigan has a slight caveat for larger cities, which allows ballot inspection to begin the day before.)

As I wrote last week, it’s clear that Pennsylvania election officials violated the law by alerting voters to correct mistakes on or “cure” their mail-in ballots days before Election Day. This means not only were election workers inspecting mail-in envelopes in advance of the legal deadline, the unlawful pre-canvassing occurred without observers present, another obvious violation.

Further, Pennsylvania is one of several states that does not have a ballot “curing” provision on the books. “Ballot curing refers to the process by which voters can correct mistakes—such as a missing or mismatched signature—with an absentee/mail-in ballot so that the ballot can be counted,” according to Ballotpedia, an online repository of election data and information. “Ballot curing provisions lay out this process in state law. States without such provisions do not count absentee/mail-in ballots with errors.” Pennsylvania voters had the option to check a database to see if their ballot had been rejected; if so, the voter needed to request a provisional ballot, not correct the existing one.

Wisconsin also doesn’t authorize any sort of ballot “curing.” But, just as in Pennsylvania, that didn’t stop election workers from contacting voters about erroneous—i.e., disqualifying—information on their mail-in ballot envelopes. Wisconsin law requires the voter’s signature, a witness signature, and the witness’s address on the mailing envelope, which acts as a certification for the enclosed ballot. Deficiencies in any of the verification steps should render the ballot invalid; the requirements meet the bare minimum for any sort of legitimate absentee voting.

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https://amgreatness.com/2020/11/30/the-badger-states-ballot-fix-was-in/

Cyber Liberty:
In PA, "curing" was limited to Democrat-leaning Counties while GOP-leaning Counties were not allowed.  I wonder if WI is the same?

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