Wisconsin is denied a waiver for new federal law meant to protect the voting rights of military personnel deployed overseas. Wisconsin was among nine states and the District of Columbia which applied to the Department of Defense for a waiver after passage of the MOVE Act – which requires ballots be sent at least 45 days before an election – last year. The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, which had applied for the waiver, confirmed Friday that the state will not receive one.
Passage of the law – which requires ballots be sent at least 45 days before an election – posed a challenge to states like Wisconsin with late August or September primaries. Under terms of the MOVE Act, the deadline for distributing November ballots is September 18, just four days after Wisconsin’s primary and not enough time for the state’s results to be certified.