The Public Interest Legal Foundation said Friday that 83,000 ballots were lost in Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election.
That number well eclipsed current President Joe Biden‘s declared 20,000-vote margin of victory in the state over incumbent Donald Trump.
Trump and his supporters have long disputed the outcome due to late-night shenanigans and other irregularities in the wake of the Nov. 3 election.
“We now know the cost of the rush to mail balloting—lost ballots,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “The federal data show the 2020 election had more mail ballots that were never counted than the margin of victory in the Presidential election in Wisconsin.”
Checkout our new report: 83K Mail Ballots Went Missing or Undeliverable in WI. Biden only won the state by 20K votes. This was the first time that the state had more undeliverable and unknown ballots than the margin of victory for a statewide candidate. https://t.co/PCjrbgGTk0
— PublicInterestLegal (@PILFoundation) August 27, 2021
Currently, the 2020 election in Wisconsin is being audited by a number of entities including a legislative audit, an audit by a former state Supreme Court justice and an audit done by grassroots citizens.
“A legislative committee controlled by Republicans in February told the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau to look into how state and local officials run elections, process absentee ballots, conduct recounts, ensure voting machines are accurate and handle complaints about elections,” said the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
That report is expected in the fall.
There were widespread delays in mail delivery during the fall election following reports as early as May 2020 that sounded the alarm about problems that had occurred during the state primary elections.
The confusion caused further delays in tabulating the vote, which resulted in a loss of public confidence about the finally vote count.
PILF’s report reiterated its longstanding security concerns regarding use of the postal service to conduct elections, including the loss of ballots, inability to process ballots on time, and the lack of security for ballots once dropped into the mail.
“This isn’t the way to run an election,” Adams said. “Mail ballots invite error, disenfranchisement of voters, and puts the inept U.S. Post Office determining the outcome of elections.”
