Post office returns hundreds of absentee ballots that were supposed to be delivered to Fox Point voters

For two weeks, absentee ballots that were supposed to be mailed to Fox Point residents bounced back to Fox Point Village Hall.

Although village officials attempted to send the ballots out to residents who requested them, undelivered ballots kept coming back to the village from the U.S. Postal Service, according to Village Manager Scott Botcher.

In the first week, the village received anywhere from 20 to 50 returned absentee ballots per day. In the week leading up to Tuesday's election, 100 to 150 ballots per day were returned to the village. About 10 per day should have gone to Glendale addresses, not Fox Point, Botcher said.

On the morning of Election Day, Fox Point Village Hall received a plastic mail bin with 175 ballots that never went out in the mail, including a number of Glendale ballots.

The ballots are unopened and unmarked. They don’t have a “return to sender” stamp or any type of explanation attached to them, said Botcher.

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Every time they received a batch of absentee ballots, village officials immediately drove the ballots back to the nearest post office, at 5651 N. Lydell Ave. They asked post office supervisors what was wrong with the ballots, but they did not receive any explanation.

“We’re not sure why this happened,” Botcher said. “Nobody seems to be able to tell me why.”

Fox Point Village Clerk Kelly Meyer said it's unclear how many voters were affected by the undelivered ballots.

Fox Point received 2,877 absentee ballot requests, all of which were fulfilled within 24 hours of receipt, she said. 

Meyer said her office had not counted the number of returned ballots as of April 8. Tabulation of election ballots would not be finalized until April 13. 

Residents who did not receive an absentee ballot in the mail were advised to vote in person at their polling place on Election Day.

Residents who called village hall inquiring about their absentee ballot on Election Day were allowed to retrieve their ballot from village hall if the ballot was in the postal bin delivered that morning. Residents had to show a photo ID to receive their ballot.

Botcher said he plans to ask a more senior-level postal official to explain the snafu, for fear it could recur in the November election.

A representative from the U.S. Postal Service did not immediately return a phone call from a reporter.

Congresswoman Gwen Moore's office has contacted the U.S. Postal Service to investigate the incident. 

Contact Jeff Rumage at (262) 446-6616 or jeff.rumage@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffRumage or Facebook at www.facebook.com/northshorenow.