Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down Green Party Ballot Bid

MADISON, WI — Nearly one million absentee ballots have been cleared for mailing this week after the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected the Green Party's bid to have presidential candidate Howie Hawkins added to the ballot.

Hawkins challenged a Wisconsin Elections Commission decision that prevented him from appearing on the ballot.

The court cited the timing of Hawkins' claims as the main reason behind their denial.

"Even if we would ultimately determine that the petitioners’ claims are meritorious, given their delay in asserting their rights, we would be unable to provide meaningful relief without completely upsetting the election," the court wrote in their majority opinion.

In their majority opinion Monday, Wisconsin Supreme Court justices brought up the nearly one million absentee ballots that were required to reach voters by Sep. 17. Local clerks faced a Thursday deadline to mail absentee ballots to voters who requested a ballot. So far, more than 968,000 absentee ballots have been requested in Wisconsin.

"Ordering new ballots to be printed would be an expensive and time-consuming process that would not allow counties and municipalities to meet the statutory deadlines for delivering and sending ballots," the court wrote in their majority opinion Monday. "In addition, for this court to order the printing and mailing of replacement ballots containing the petitioners’ names would create a substantial possibility of confusion among voters who had already received, and possibly returned, the original ballots."

In their majority opinion, the court said "this is not the first occasion on which we have declined to exercise our original jurisdiction due to the lack of sufficient time to complete our review and award any effective relief," citing a 2002 case.