Nonprofit law firm Law Forward filed a class action lawsuit against the city of Madison March 6 on behalf of four voters whose absentee ballots were not counted in the 2024 presidential election.
The lawsuit, which seeks $175,000 from the city of Madison for each of the four plaintiffs signed on, claimed that these uncounted ballots “irrevocably deprived the Voters of their right to vote in the November 2024 general election,” and that the city is “liable for this deprivation.”
Dylan Brogan, the city communications manager, said in December the City Clerk’s Office had discovered a total of 193 ballots that had gone uncounted.
“The number of uncounted absentee ballots was not enough to affect the outcome of any race or referendum on the ballot,” Brogan said in the statement.
Law Forward, the nonprofit law firm representing the plaintiffs, said in a press release on March 6 that “these officials have a long record of protecting voting rights, but this lawsuit sends a clear message to anyone seeking to interfere with a Wisconsinite’s right to vote: there will be a price to pay.”
Scott Thompson, one of the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told The Daily Cardinal Law Forward filed the lawsuit to protect the 193 voters who “had been disenfranchised through no fault of their own.”.
“Law Forward, for years now, has been watching as anti-democracy lawyers, as well as their allies, have attempted here in Wisconsin and across the country to throw out absentee ballots and to disregard the right to vote,” he said.
While Thomspon said the city generally does a good job of upholding the right to vote, he said that this lawsuit sends a bigger message to those watching these events unfold.
“We do not want to ever give the impression that we would be comfortable with someone in Wisconsin, with someone in Madison, with someone anywhere in our state losing the right to vote,” he said.
The Clerk’s Office disclosed in December that there were two main wards where ballots went uncounted: Ward 65, near University Hospital, and Ward 56, a predominantly student neighborhood near Frances Street and Bassett Street.
Thompson told the Cardinal the fact that a majority of the uncounted votes may have belonged to students is “an extremely important part of the story.”
“After all, younger voters are the ones who have to live with this system longer than anybody else, they have the most at stake, and so I think that especially given how many students were involved that this is a really important story for campus,” Thompson said.
The city has not yet responded to the lawsuit, but a series of Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) meetings have taken place to address the uncounted ballots. On Friday, the WEC unanimously decided to hold depositions for Madison election officials to determine why uncounted ballots were not reported for several weeks.
The commission also voted to send updated guidance clerks throughout the state ahead of the April 1 elections on correct handling of absentee ballots.
Thompson said he is glad the city is taking steps to address the issue but that more work still needs to be done.
“It is upsetting as someone who has told people that voting is safe and secure, which it generally is, to [then] see so many people disenfranchised in my city,” he said.
Vanessa Gavilan is the city news editor for The Daily Cardinal.
