Confusion over new legislative district leads to ballot error in northern Wisconsin Assembly primary

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A local election clerk failed to realize that Wisconsin’s new legislative maps moved a rural town into a new district, leading to an administrative error that could disenfranchise scores of voters in a Republican state Assembly primary race.

The new maps shifted Summit, a town of about 1,000 people in Douglas County in far northern Wisconsin, out of the 73rd Assembly District and into the 74th District. But voters in Summit received ballots for the primary in the 73rd rather than the primary in the 74th, city clerk Kaci Jo Lundgren said in a news release issued Tuesday afternoon.

Democrat Angela Stroud defeated John Adams in the primary in the 73rd. Incumbent Chanz Green and former prison guard Scott Harbridge squared off in Tuesday’s primary for the GOP nomination in the 74th District.

The incorrect ballots mean votes in the 73rd primary cast in Summit likely won’t count under state law, Lundgren said. What’s more, no one in Summit could vote for Green or Harbridge in the 74th.

The Associated Press has not called a winner in the 74th District race while it determines if the outcome of the race could be challenged because of the voters who were disenfranchised. As of 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Green led by nearly 1,000 votes.

In the news release, Lundgren said about 700 residents of Summit are registered voters.

Lundgren, who oversees elections in Douglas County, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that she reviewed the new legislative boundaries many times but somehow missed that Summit is now in the 74th District.

“It was human error,” she said. “It was a mistake. I made that mistake. … It was an oversight in one municipality.”

Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon that state law doesn’t address such a situation.

“I don’t know what the remedies could look like,” Wolfe said. “I’m not aware of something happening quite like this, for any precedent in this situation.”

Wolfe said Summit voters who cast ballots in the 73rd primary didn’t commit fraud since they were given official ballots. Votes cast in other races on the Summit ballot, including ballot questions on whether the state should adopt two constitutional amendments restricting the governor’s authority to spend federal aid, will still count, she said.

The liberal-leaning state Supreme Court threw out Republican-drawn legislative boundaries in 2023. GOP lawmakers in February adopted new maps that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers drew rather than allowing the liberal court to craft districts that might be even worse for them. Tuesday’s primary marks the first election with the new boundaries in play.

Confusion surrounding those new maps appeared to be limited to Summit. The state elections commission hadn’t heard of similar oversights anywhere else in the state, Wolfe said.

Matt Fisher, a spokesperson for the state Republican Party, had no immediate comment. No one immediately responded to an email the AP sent to Green’s campaign.

Harbridge told The AP in a telephone interview that the mistake shouldn’t matter unless the race between him and Green is close. He has already consulted with some attorneys, but he lacks the money to contest the results in court, he said.

“I’m not happy at all about it,” he said of the mistake. “I don’t understand how this could happen.”

Todd Richmond, The Associated Press