Both of Wisconsin's senators are urging the Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service Tammy Whitcomb to investigate reports of irregularities involving absentee ballots for the election held on Tuesday, April 7th.
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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) sent a letter to the IG on Thursday.
You can read the full letter here:
"Unfortunately, there have been numerous accounts from the state that USPS failed to fulfill that critical function for some voters," the senators wrote. "According to an April 8th report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the account of a state legislator, three tubs of absentee ballots from Appleton and Oshkosh were discovered in USPS's Milwaukee processing center after polls closed on Tuesday."
"In addition, the City of Milwaukee Election Commission has requested that USPS investigate the failure of batches of absentee ballots requested on March 22nd and 23nd to be delivered to voters. Finally, the Village of Fox Point reports that USPS returned to them multiple batches of unsent absentee ballots and they were unable to obtain an explanation from their local post office as to why they were not delivered to the voters who requested them."
"We are concerned there may be more examples, and request that you promptly open an investigation to determine the cause of these failures, which appear to have disenfranchised many Wisconsin voters."
The Milwaukee Election Commission also said it's requesting an investigation by the U.S. Postal Service as to why some absentee ballots were never delivered.
Milwaukee's election director says he's very concerned about two issues regarding the post service's handling of absentee ballots. He says some were never sent out — and others didn't receive a postmark date — meaning election officials can't prove they were mailed in on time.
TMJ4 News reached out to the U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday. We were told they have no comment on the matter.