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Dear Editor:
You know your vote matters. Your right to vote is precious to you. But a simple error in the way you fill out your absentee ballot CAN lead to your vote not being counted.
In the 2016 and 2018 Wisconsin general election, absentee ballots made up more than 6% of all ballots counted. In April 2020, absentee ballots jumped to more than 60%. But too many of the absentee ballots submitted were rejected.
Let us try to make sure that this doesn't happen in the upcoming November election.
There are multiple reasons for rejections including a damaged or resealed envelope or voters in a household placing multiple ballots in one envelope , but the biggest reason, "certification insufficient", was due to missing signatures, witness signatures or missing witness addresses on the back of the absentee ballot envelope.
The back of the absentee ballot envelope needs to be filled out by the voter and a witness.
The voter submitting the ballot must sign and date at the top line where it says "Signature of Voter".
Absentee ballots require a person other than the voter to witness the voter's signature. The witness has to fill out the section "Certification Of Witness". The witness has to both sign on the line above "Signature of ONE adult U.S. citizen witness" and must also fill in the witnesses' address on the line below "Address of witness".
If you don't do any of these things, your ballot will be rejected. Many people miss this detail. An estimated 13,834 voters missed that detail for the April election.
Take the time to fill out your ballot correctly because YOUR VOTE MATTERS!
Remember that you can check the status of your absentee ballot by going online to myvote.wi.gov. Click on "My Voter Info" and fill your name and date of birth in "Search for My Voter Record". Hit the green "Search" button and you will see the status of your absentee ballot. If you see "certification insufficient", contact your clerk immediately because they found a mistake on your absentee ballot.
Our clerks work hard to assure that our votes count. But they can get swamped at the time of the general election, so let's make their job easier and fill out our absentee ballots correctly.
Damian Barta
Spring Green
Member of the Spring Green
Voter Advocates