5.81 Ballot information; arrangement; absentee ballots.
(1) Whenever the statutes provide for the use of separate ballots or columns or rows for offices, parties or referenda, and an electronic voting system in which ballots are distributed to electors is used at a polling place, a single ballot may be used for all offices, referenda and parties. The ballot information, whether placed on the ballot or on the voting device, shall, as far as practicable, be grouped and ordered in the same manner as provided for other ballots under this chapter, except that the information on the ballot need not be in separate columns or rows.
(3) If a municipality utilizes an electronic voting system in which ballots distributed to electors are employed, absentee ballots may consist of ballots utilized with the system or paper ballots and envelopes voted in person in the office of the municipal clerk or voted by mail.
(4) In partisan primary elections, if a ballot contains the names of candidates of more than one party, it shall provide a space for electors to designate a party preference. Failure to designate a preference does not invalidate any votes cast by an elector, except as provided in s. 7.50 (1) (d).
History: 1979 c. 311; 1985 a. 304; 1999 a. 182; 2001 a. 16; 2011 a. 32.