The approaching gubernatorial race in Wisconsin is arguably the biggest election in that state in more than a decade.  It is certainly the highest profile recall election in the United States since California recalled a sitting Governor.  Politico calls the race Armageddon. 

However, many overseas and military voters will be effectively disenfranchised from participating due to a failure of election officials to plan for the short span of time between the recall primary and the recall general election.  It also involves a questionable interpretation of how state law and the Wisconsin constitution interact together on the schedule of the recall election.  The bottom line is that it appears overseas military voters will be given only 2 weeks to receive and return their ballots to be counted.  With the warp speed in which the postal system works, good luck with that.

…Dane County Deputy Clerk Judy Nowak told the WisconsinReporter that “It’s a two-week window of opportunity” to vote absentee.

The WisconsinReporter more specifically lays out the problem:

State law requires that absentee ballots be available 21 days before an election. By the calendar, absentee ballots, then, should be available Monday for the June 5 recall elections involving Gov. Scott Walker, Lt Gov Rebecca Kleefisch and four GOP state senators.  But in reality, absentee ballots for the recalls won’t be available until at least May 18, after the GAB, which oversees the state’s elections, certifies the results from Tuesday’s primaries.  The GAB plans to certify Tuesday’s recall primaries at 5 p.m. May 17, allowing the required time for local canvassing boards to tally all the votes, including late-arriving absentee ballots and provisional ballots, and allowing for a three-day period during which candidates may request a recount.

For Spanish language ballots.  More here.

Hurrah, now we’ve got a sales ranking at Tova Wang’s book.  Stay tuned for her sales to be added to the widget once Novel Rank can digest her data.

“Kincannon also claimed that military voters should get ballots 45 days before an election in order to return them in time.  State Election Commission Attorney Elizabeth Crum said that rule only applied to federal races.”

This is the latest in a series of questionable positions taken by the State Election Commission.  The previous ones include providing bad data to the Justice Department on the South Carolina Voter ID submission.  As I recall, South Carolina also entered into a consent decree on military voting, and the decree was precleared.  Any deviation from that decree would constitute a change requiring preclearance.  From the news report, it is difficult to tell how this case was lost, though it appears to be on standing.  Yet standing is something that should not have been problematic. Perhaps someone can email the opinion for us to post. 

“The report has some or all of the 31 people listed are suspected of falsifying voter records and fraud. Some of the people whose signatures appear on the petition said they have never signed it.  One of them is an 89-year-old nun. ‘It gives me some comfort to know they’re going to investigate so it doesn’t happen again,’ said Sister Mary Angelo Lobato.”

KOB-TV.

Politico with a unique view. They write “there’s talk of tightening ballot access laws in the future to prevent what many view as a situation that badly embarrassed the state.”  Embarrassed the state?  Most commentary about the incarcerated felon earning 40 percent of the vote and beating Obama in 8 counties has focused on how it embarrassed the President, not embarrassed West Virginia. 

 West Virginia Metro News.

Senator Jake Knotts, technically a Republican but more an old school Boll Weevil, may be at the center of the controversy in South Carolina that saw hundreds of names removed from the primary ballot.  The Garnet Spy has this exhaustive account which conforms to everything I have heard and know about the matter.

 Like an October snow, the case seeking to add candidates to the ballot in South Carolina has come and gone.