Wisconsin reaches deal with federal government on military, overseas voting

Wis. reaches deal on military, overseas voting

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin election officials and the U.S. Department of Justice have reached an agreement on how the state will comply with a new law designed to ensure all military and overseas voters have their ballots counted.

The two sides expected to file an agreement in federal court on Friday. Wisconsin Government Accountability Board spokesman Reid Magney would not say Thursday what was in the consent decree before it was filed.

The law requires that ballots to members of the military and others living overseas have to be sent by Sept. 18, which is 45 days before the Nov. 2 election.

Wisconsin, Hawaii, Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands sought the waiver saying they don’t have enough time to formalize the ballot and get it sent to those voters by the deadline.

After its waiver was denied, Alaska sent a letter to the Justice Department saying it could comply with the law’s 45-day ballot transit time by expediting its certification process of the primary election. That state’s primary was Aug. 24.

Similarly, Colorado election officials said they can also meet the Sept. 18 deadline. The state, which held its primary Aug. 10, sought the waiver as a safety net, said Rich Coolidge, spokesman for the Colorado secretary of state.

Coolidge said about half of Colorado’s 64 counties will have to send overseas voters PDF files printed on normal computer paper and tally those votes by hand in order to comply.

The District of Columbia has proposed extending the deadline for overseas and military ballots to be returned from 10 days after the election to 17 but has not yet heard back from the Justice Department, said Board of Elections and Ethics spokeswoman Alysoun McLaughlin.

The primary is Tuesday in Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands. Hawaii’s is the nation’s last on Sept. 18.

The Defense Department granted waivers last month to Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington.

Advocates who pushed for the Military and Overseas Voter Act passed by Congress in October said more time is needed to send ballots overseas and get them returned and counted on time.

Wisconsin argued it should be given a waiver because it has a 10-day postelection grace period and extends other options to military voters. Wisconsin’s final general election ballot is available to overseas voters between 29 and 39 days before the election, just shy of the 45-day requirement under the federal law.

Associated Press writers Kristen Wyatt in Denver, Becky Bohrer in Juneau and Kathleen Miller in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.