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(AP) By D.L. Davis November 13, 2020 # Wisconsin Democrats jump the gun with claim that absentee ballot rejections are down #### If Your Time is short * In April 2020, 23,196 absentee ballots were rejected, 1.8% of total ballots. That\'s down from 2.5% in April 2016. * But we don\'t know yet how many ballots were rejected Nov. 3, and won\'t know until mid-December. See the sources for this fact-check As Democrats celebrate the unofficial victory of President-elect Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 presidential election, claims of subterfuge, trickery and outright fraud involving absentee ballots continue to rain down. Thus far, there has been no evidence of widespread fraud presented, but Wisconsin lawmakers plan to issue their first subpoenas in years as part of an investigation into the election here. Ben Wikler, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, rejected the fraud allegations in a Nov. 8 appearance on WISN-TV’s UpFront program. But he added another detail that caught our eye. \"Across the state the rejection rate for ballots went way down because so much work and so much care was taken both by voters themselves and clerks around the state,\" Wikler said. Is his claim that the rejection rate for ballots is down correct? Let’s take a look. The claim When asked to back up the claim, Courtney Beyer, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party of Wisconsin, cited a Oct. 28, 2020, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article that reported 23,196 absentee ballots were rejected in the April 2020 election, about 1.8% of total ballots. Democrats believe there are signs it would be much lower for the November election. \"At least 23,000 ballots were rejected in April,\" Beyer said in an email. \"We don’t know exactly how many absentee ballots were rejected from this election (and won’t for a while), but preliminary counts had it around 1,000. Significantly less.\" Beyer also cited a Nov. 3 tweet from WisPolitics.com journalist Pat Poblete, who said \"Administrator Meagan Wolfe says as of this afternoon, 970 absentee ballots have been returned with a deficiency that would lead to them being rejected.\" But Wikler’s claim was made while discussing the Nov. 3 election. Viewers would have had no reason to believe he was referencing data from the April primary. So let’s review what we know about absentee rejection Nov. 3. No data yet for Nov. 3 election Elections Commission public information officer Reid Magney said the jury is still out on the absentee rejection count. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on August 5, 2024 in an X post Tim Walz “changed the Minnesota flag so it could resemble the Somalian flag.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • August 6, 2024 \"We believe the numbers will be low, but we won’t know the rejection rate for several weeks,\" he said. \"Clerks have 45 days (after the election) to enter that data into the statewide voter database.\" Magney said the 970 absentee ballots referenced as flagged \"was a preliminary, pre-election figure - ballots marked for rejection if the voters didn\'t fix problems.\" In other words, it doesn’t give any general insight on how often ballots were rejected overall. However, there is an indication that the number of rejected absentee ballots could drop. The Oct. 28 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article points out that in April 2016, 5,860 absentee ballots were rejected — 2.5% of the total absentee ballots. And in April 2020, 23,196 absentee ballots were rejected. It’s a much higher raw number, but because so many more people used absentee ballots it was actually a smaller portion of total ballots — 1.8%. Our ruling Wikler said, \"Across the state the rejection rate for ballots went way down.\" According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, it’s too early to know how many ballots were rejected. It may very well be true that the absentee ballot rejection rate was lower than past elections, but for now, the commission says there is no data to confirm that. By looking at the 2016 rejected ballot rate compared with the improved April 2020 rate, there is a possibility the rejection will also be down for November 2020, but there is no data yet to confirm that. Even Democrats subsequently acknowledged, \"We don’t know exactly how many absentee ballots were rejected from this election (and won’t for a while).\" For a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, our rating is Mostly False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, \"Ballot clerks asked for help. Lawmakers didn’t act. Disinformation followed,\" Nov. 10, 2020. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel \"More than 23K absentee ballots were rejected in April; election officials expect smaller percentage to have problems in November,\"Oct. 28, 2020. PolitiFact, \"Fact-checking a conspiracy theory about ballot counting in battleground states,\" Nov. 4, 2020. WISN \"UpFront,\" Nov. 8, 2020. Email, Courtney Beyer, spokeswoman Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Nov. 11, 2020 Email, Reid Magney, Wisconsin Elections Commission, Nov. 10, 2020 Twitter, WisPolitics.com Pat Poblete, Nov. 3, 2020 Wisconsin Elections Commission \"Correcting misinformation about Wisconsin’s election,\" Nov. 10, 2020. ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by D.L. Davis slide 4 to 6 of 15 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tony Evers stated on March 8, 2023 in Twitter: The money for upgrades to the Milwaukee Brewers stadium in Evers’ budget is \"a bipartisan plan.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • March 28, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Joan Ballweg stated on January 24, 2023 in Twitter: \"Wisconsin has seen over 63 billion dollars of federal pandemic-related funding funnel into our state over (Gov. Tony Evers\') tenure.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • March 14, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tony Evers stated on December 27, 2022 in Twitter: \"During my time in office, we\'ve increased per pupil aid by more than $300 per student. Now, our schools have returned to the top 10 in the country after falling to 17 under the previous administration.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • February 7, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Joe Biden stated on May 16, 2024 in News release: \"The Trump administration handed out taxpayer dollars to a foreign company. Hundreds of homes and farms were bulldozed, and over $500 million in taxpayer dollars were wasted preparing for Foxconn.\" ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • July 13, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ron Johnson stated on April 15, 2024 in Podcast: \"Every Senate Democrat has voted to support unlimited abortions up to the moment of birth.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By D.L. Davis • May 17, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Lisa Subeck stated on February 16, 2024 in X, formerly Twitter: “The United States is an outlier, one of only about half a dozen countries, without any guarantee of paid leave for new parents and/or other health care needs.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By D.L. Davis • April 16, 2024 ![](\\" new/e5f81dc43ebbfab7c9d9b56cfba2f398.jpg\\") ![](\\" new/9fbc38bd9f4148c4e7374ecdd8d95da4.jpg\\") Tammy Baldwin stated on February 1, 2024 in Facebook post: “Big drug companies charge as little as $7 for an inhaler overseas and nearly $500 for the exact same one here in the US.” ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • February 23, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Robin Vos stated on January 7, 2024 in TV interview: “The law in Wisconsin (on abortion time limit) is 20 weeks. That is way outside the international bounds.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • February 9, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Cindi Duchow stated on November 9, 2023 in Wisconsin Assembly: \"Unfortunately during COVID, the clerks in Madison and Milwaukee told their constituents that they were actually indefinitely confined and did not have to come and vote, which was incorrect.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • January 26, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ron Tusler stated on September 12, 2023 in X, formerly Twitter: Wisconsin Republicans are backing “a nonpartisan redistricting plan based off the Iowa Model. ... Republicans, Democrats, and the Governor pushed this plan last time redistricting happened in 2020.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • December 8, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rebecca Cooke stated on September 1, 2023 in X, formerly Twitter: \"Derrick Van Orden is one of the only members of Congress who participated in the deadly January 6th insurrection. He now serves in the building he tried to burn down.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • October 11, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" LaKeshia Myers stated on June 6, 2023 in News release: During the spring 2020 election in Milwaukee, a reduction to only five polling locations “came days before the election and was done without proper notice to voters.” ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • September 8, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kelda Helen Roys stated on April 26, 2023 in Twitter: Infertility is treated differently than other issues and \"often excluded from insurance coverage\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By D.L. Davis • May 26, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Robin Vos stated on March 9, 2023 in Podcast: “When a basketball player or football or baseball player from another team plays in Wisconsin, that one game\'s salary, they pay Wisconsin income tax on it. ... 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Tony Evers\') tenure.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • March 14, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tony Evers stated on December 27, 2022 in Twitter: \"During my time in office, we\'ve increased per pupil aid by more than $300 per student. Now, our schools have returned to the top 10 in the country after falling to 17 under the previous administration.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By D.L. Davis • February 7, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Joe Biden stated on May 16, 2024 in News release: \"The Trump administration handed out taxpayer dollars to a foreign company. Hundreds of homes and farms were bulldozed, and over $500 million in taxpayer dollars were wasted preparing for Foxconn.\" ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By D.L. 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Across the state the rejection rate for ballots went way down in the Nov 3 election