A lawsuit filed by Republican officials regarding the design of the state’s standard ballot was dismissed by a Waukesha County judge in late September.

The lawsuit stated that the new model ballot issued by the Government Accountability Board (GAB) would confuse voters because of the way the first candidate’s name would be listed in the same box as the title of the office, possibly causing voters to assume the first candidate listed is the incumbent. This year all candidates listed first will be Democrats, because their party won the 2012 presidential election.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge James Kieffer stated in his opinion that the Republican leadership did not have standing for the suit, but should have filed a complaint with GAB before attempting to sue the agency.

Clerks are not required to use the GAB-issued model, and many counties have decided to use previous models for ballots. As of today, Marathon, Ashland, Bayfield, and Burnett counties will likely use the disputed ballots. You can see the sample ballot your county will be using on November 4 by going to the GAB website.