MILWAUKEE — Voting absentee in Wisconsin is going to look a little different come spring 2024, after the state’s election commission approved design changes to ballot envelops.
Following a recommendation from the Legislative Audit Bureau in December 2022, the Wisconsin Elections Commission worked for months to make the envelopes as “usable as possible” to reduce errors and landed on a decision on Aug. 4.
“We want every vote to count but we have to make sure that ballots and envelopes are done correctly,” Milwaukee Elections Commission Deputy Director Paulina Guiterrez said. “We do sometimes see people forget to put the witness signature or the witness address.”
With a more exaggerated alert symbol, the witness section on the new envelopes is harder to miss. It also comes with a new requirement, along with writing their address and signatures, witnesses will now have to print their names.
That change comes after LAB determined the old design did not comply with Wis. Stat. §6.87(2) when a space for the witness to print their name was left out.
On top of the new requirement, the envelope has a larger font, bullet point instructions, and changes to color that differentiate between the type of voter: military, special voting deputies, and regular.
The color-coded envelopes are also meant to make them easier for USPS to spot and process in the mail.
Each municipality is responsible for printing their own envelopes but the WEC has approved $600,000 in federal funds to help with the transition.
“We understand that local election officials across the state especially in smaller towns may not have all the resources at the ready to implement these new envelop designs,” WEC Public Information Officer Riley Vetterkind said.
Grant funding for the new envelopes will be allocated based on voting age population. Milwaukee for example, which will be ordering hundreds of thousands according to Guiterrez, would be eligible for more than $56,000 in grant funding and the average award would be for about $650.
The new design comes as more Wisconsin voters are choosing to skip the lines on election day. According to WEC data, in 2022 more than 740,000 absentee ballots were returned by mail. In 2018 that number was 565,591.
The WEC is currently in the process of developing guidance for uniformity across municipalities around the new envelopes as well as materials to help voters understand the changes.
Changes that so far seem to be well received by Wisconsin voters like Elijah Holmes.
“It’s easier to read you don’t have to strain your eyes really and everything is plainly written out,” Holmes said. “It’s going to help a lot of young voters.
Vetterkind said voters, equipment vendors, USPS, and election officials all weighed in on the new designs. The changes do not affect the ballot themselves.
Click here to see the new envelopes.
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