Election integrity advocates contend the probe would be a good first step for addressing vote-counting issues in Wisconsin.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Nearly 200 absentee ballots somehow went uncounted in Wisconsin’s liberal capital after the Nov. 5 election, prompting state election officials to launch an investigation Thursday into whether the city clerk broke the law.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously authorized an investigation Thursday into Madison’s mishandling of nearly 200 absentee ballots that were never counted from the November 2024 election. It’s the first such investigation that the bipartisan commission has authorized since becoming an agency in 2016.

Wisconsin Elections Commission members raise concerns after the discovery that 193 properly returned absentee ballots weren’t tallied.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted Thursday to investigate how nearly 200 absentee ballots cast in Madison were overlooked and not counted on Election Night. “This was such a serious oversight that I didn’t want to wait for a complaint,

The number of ballots was not enough the affect the outcome of any races on the ballot in these areas, the Clerk's Office said.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted unanimously Thursday to investigate the Madison City Clerk's Office over the uncounted ballots from the Nov. 5 general election.