Milwaukee Election Commission to request investigation by U.S. Postal Service into missing absentee ballots

The Milwaukee Election Commission will seek a formal U.S. Postal Service investigation into what happened to absentee ballots that did not reach Milwaukee voters, commission Executive Director Neil Albrecht said Wednesday.

Albrecht said the commission wanted the investigation to be centered around "absentee ballots that were issued and mailed by the City of Milwaukee around the March 22nd and 23rd period."

He said the city saw a pattern of calls from voters whose ballots had been issued on March 22 and March 23 but never reached them.

"The pattern that we saw in terms of a volume of voters — and I can't give an exact percentage — calling in and saying that they had not received their ballots really drew our attention to those two days," Albrecht said during a virtual news conference Wednesday afternoon. 

When the city learned of the issue with ballots not being delivered to voters, officials immediately began re-issuing ballots to voters who had made a request over that period of time but had not gotten their ballots, he said.

This story will be updated.

Contact Mary Spicuzza at (414) 224-2324 or mary.spicuzza@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MSpicuzzaMJS.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/08/milwaukee-election-commission-seeks-investigation-into-missing-ballots/2972382001/