Published on July 8th, 2026
Imagine casting your absentee ballot in Wisconsin, believing that your vote is private, only to learn that numerous individuals can determine exactly how you voted. That is not hypothetical. It is the direct consequence of a Wisconsin statute that goes largely unnoticed and needs to be fixed.
The right to a “secret ballot” has been a staple of U.S. elections since the late 1800’s. It is guaranteed in all 50 states, either by a state constitutional provision or by statute. In Wisconsin, the right to a secret ballot is protected by Article III, Sec. 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution which states, “All votes shall be by secret ballot.”
A secret ballot has at least two important purposes: (1) it prevents intimidation (because no one knows how a person voted), and (2) it promotes election integrity by making bribery difficult. A bribe is not effective if the buyer cannot verify the voter followed through.
Despite the constitutional protection for the “secret ballot,” Wisconsin has a statutory provision that is directly inconsistent with this protection. Wis. Stat § 7.52(3), which deals with the processing of absentee ballots in municipalities that use what is referred to as “Central Count,” has a provision that states as follows:
“The board of absentee ballot canvassers shall mark the poll list number of each elector who casts an absentee ballot on the back of the elector’s ballot.”
Practically speaking, here is what that means: Wisconsin law allows absentee ballots to either be delivered to and counted in the physical location of the voting ward where the voter who cast the ballot lives or, alternatively, all absentee ballots may be processed and counted by the municipality in one single, central location typically referred to as “Central Count.” Wis. Stat. § 7.52(3) only applies to the latter.
There are currently over 40 municipalities in Wisconsin that use Central Count, including major cities like Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Kenosha (See footnote), which means this statute affects hundreds of thousands of ballots.
Under Wis. Stat. § 7.52(3) an election official in those communities must put the poll list number of each voter who casts one of those ballots on the back of the ballot. The “poll list” is a list maintained by election officials in which each voter is given a unique number and their name is recorded on the list when their vote is cast. The poll list is a public record. As a result, someone could easily find out that John Doe was voter #452 on the poll list in the last election.
If John Doe voted by absentee ballot in a municipality that uses Central Count, then under Wis. Stat. § 7.52(3), the election official would write “#452” on the back of John Doe’s ballot. The ballot is also a public record. It is possible, therefore, for someone to examine the poll list to get a voter’s poll list number and then look for that particular number on the back of an absentee ballot—enabling them to know precisely how John Doe voted.
This completely destroys the secrecy of the ballot. Both the poll list and the ballots themselves are accessible to the public through Wisconsin’s open records law. And while Wisconsin municipal clerks do follow the practice of “redacting” (or, covering-up) the poll list number on the back of the ballot if a member of the public makes an open records request for the ballots, municipal clerks, their employees, and other election officials can see the poll list number and have access to the poll list, itself, and can determine how each voter cast their ballot.
Do they actually do so? We are unaware of any evidence that they do. In fact, our understanding is that clerks dislike this law because of the extra work it imposes on them. But why does the Wisconsin Legislature put voters in the position where their ballot is not secret? There is no good reason for this law. In fact, there is no reason to have election officials place any marks on or write on any voted ballot, given the possibility that the extra writing could spoil the ballot. Even the mere potential for abuse or mistake is corrosive, and the ability to trace voted ballots to individual voters is a direct violation of the Wisconsin Constitution’s guarantee of a secret ballot. And, for those concerned about election integrity, there are other effective—and lawful—ways to address such concerns without jeopardizing voters’ right to secret ballots.
Wisconsin is a true outlier with respect to this part of Wis. Stat. § 7.52(3). To the best of our knowledge, only one other state in the country has anything similar. In North Carolina, a unique number is applied to the blank absentee ballot when it is issued to the voter and is tied to the voter through the absentee ballot register. North Carolina Gen. Stat. § 163-230.1(c)(1). Unlike Wisconsin, North Carolina prints the number at issuance, but the effect is the same: the counted ballot carries a number traceable to the voter.
By contrast, other states sever the link between the identity of the voter and the content of the ballot at the point of processing of the ballot. In other states, the absentee ballot envelope which contains the voter’s name and address is separated from the ballot when the ballot is processed and tabulated, ensuring that there is no ability to trace voted ballots back to individual voters. Wisconsin must do the same.
Every other state protects the secrecy of ballot far better than Wisconsin (and North Carolina). Given that a secret ballot is guaranteed by Article III, Sec. 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution, the Wisconsin Legislature needs to cure this deficiency and repeal this part of Wis. Stat. § 7.52(3).
The fix is straightforward: The Legislature should amend Wis. Stat. § 7.52(3) to eliminate the requirement that a poll list number be placed on the back of any absentee ballot and should direct the Wisconsin Elections Commission and municipal clerks to ensure that no voter identifying information is transferred to counted ballots during Central Count processing. Over the past two legislative sessions, there have been several attempts to do just that, but none have succeeded. The 2023-24 version passed the Assembly elections committee with unanimous bipartisan support yet never came to a floor vote. The current session saw two more attempts, both of which stalled. There is no good reason for further inaction — this fix has broad support, imposes no cost, and corrects a clear violation of the Wisconsin Constitution.
1 See Wisconsin Elections Commission, Central Count Absentee Ballot Municipalities, available at https://elections.wi.gov/central-count-absentee-ballot-municipalities
Nathalie Burmeister
Associate Counsel
