The Resolution of Election Disputes: Legal Principles that Control Election Challenges 302 N.W.2d 440 100 Wis.2d 490, 302 N.W.2d 440 (Cite as: 100 Wis.2d 490, 302 N.W.2d 440) Page 3 determined that there were a total of 3,092 qualified petitioner signatures, of the total 5,727 resident freeholders. to each of the election clerks informing them that it was not illegal to distribute the ballots and urging them to do so. *494 On September 17, 1976, the district attorney informed the county board that there was a sufficient number of petition signatures to hold the election. **443 On October 27, 1976, formal notice of the referendum election was published in the official county newspaper. The published notice also appeared in two other weeklies on October 27 and October 28. The board found the number of petition signatures sufficient under sec. 59.11(4), Stats., and voted to submit the county seat removal question to the voters in the November, 1976 general election. On September 29, 1976, the board directed the county clerk to prepare and distribute county seat removal ballots. The county clerk refused, based on a August 18, 1976 letter he had received from the executive director of the State Elections Board which stated it was too late to hold the referendum on the November 2nd ballot because notice was not published on the last Tuesday in May and the first Tuesday in June as required by sec. 10.06(2)(f), Stats. (1973). A county board member then contacted the State Elections Board and, by a letter dated October 13, 1976, was informed by the legal counsel to the State Elections Board that "if the total vote on the county seat question were a significant percentage of the total votes on other offices, the election on the county seat question would be valid." On October 21, 1976, the county board passed a resolution directing the county clerk to distribute ballots for the referendum and if he refused, directing the county board chairman to distribute ballots for the election. The county clerk again refused, and the county board chairman appointed a committee which had ballots printed and distributed to all municipal precinct clerks between October 23 and 25, 1976. On October 26, the county clerk sent a letter drafted by the attorney for the "Concerned Taxpayers," a group opposed to the removal of the county seat, to all election clerks directing them not to distribute the ballots and advising them that they could be subject to criminal liability if they did distribute the ballots. *495 On October 28, 1976, the district attorney sent letters 326 On October 30, a "telelecture" seminar was conducted by the University of Wisconsin Extension for county election officials. A number of Burnett county municipal election clerks attended, and the clerk for the town of Daniels asked the legal counsel for the State Elections Board whether ballots printed and delivered nine days prior to election by someone other than the county clerk would be legal. The legal counsel responded that the statutes provide that the county clerk has the exclusive authority to distribute and print ballots and that there are "possible criminal penalties for any election official who allows one to vote on a ballot other than an official ballot printed and distributed by the only means provided for in the statutes." On the November 2, 1976, general election, 6,558 persons voted in Burnett county. Election clerks in eight western Burnett county towns refused to distribute the referendum ballots. The referendum ballots were distributed in the sixteen eastern towns.[FN3] FN3. Forty-nine absentee voters in the sixteen eastern towns did not receive referendum ballots. 2,578 people, some forty percent of the voters in Burnett county, all residing in the western part of the county were denied referendum ballots and the opportunity to vote on the removal issue. Of those who were given ballots, 3,257 voted for removal, 588 voted against removal and eighty-six did not vote on the referendum. *496 The referendum ballots were sealed in ballot bags and delivered with completed tally sheets to the county clerk, who placed the ballots in his vault. In January of 1977, the Burnett County district attorney requested an opinion on the legality of the election from the Attorney General. The Attorney General opined that the election was valid despite various procedural irregularities. © 2006 Thomson/West. No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works.