Romney Campaign Sues Wisconsin Over Delay in Military Ballots

In Wisconsin, 26 municipalities missed the 45-day federal deadline to transmit absentee ballots to military personnel, and the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is suing the state in order to grant an extension for them to be returned.

All absentee ballots must be returned by Nov. 9, which is three days after the election. But the Romney campaign wants Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections, to push that date back to Nov. 14.

According to the Huffington Post, the Romney campaign first raised its concerns on Oct. 1, but GAB spokesman Reid Magney said the problem was not as serious as the Romney campaign made it seem. Magney pointed out that of the 4,288 military and overseas Wisconsin voters who requested absentee ballots, only 44 were not sent their ballots on time.

However, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan spoke about the issue during his town hall meeting in Waukesha on Monday, arguing that "if a single soldier is denied his or her right to vote, that’s a shame. That’s not what we can stand for in this country."

State Rep. Evan Wynn (R-Whitewater) also weighed in on the issue.

"They're over there fighting for our rights," Wynn, a veteran, told FOX News. "(And for) our right to vote...and they shouldn't be denied theirs because somebody back here didn't get their ballots out in time."

Kevin Kennedy, director of the GAB told FOX News said that there were only 26 of 1,851 municipal clerks who did not get the ballots out in time. He added that "redundancies in the system" allowed all members of the military to receive their ballots in time so they could be counted.