Social media post distorts ballot shortage in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election

Just after polls closed April 1 for the Wisconsin state Supreme Court election, a right-leaning social media account distorted information about a few polling locations running out of ballots.

"Here we go again… SEVEN counties in Wisconsin have Run out of Ballots, others are also low on Ballots. I try telling people… this is intentional," read an April 1 X post from an anonymous account with the user handle, MJTruthUltra.. "The entire purpose is to chip away from REAL voters. They are chipping away, little by little, the republican voter turnout." 

The post included a clip of CNN reporting that Milwaukee election officials said that multiple sites were either running low on or ran out of ballots.

We sent a message to the MJTruthUltra X account, which has nearly a half million followers and identifies itself as "watchdog, researcher and humor specialist," but does not reveal the account holder’s identity. We received no response. 

The X post misleads about what happened April 1.  Multiple news reports, including from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, PolitiFact’s Wisconsin partner, said that seven Milwaukee voting sites temporarily ran out of ballots. An elections official told PolitiFact on April 2 that upon further review, eight sites were affected.

We found no credible news reports that seven counties ran out of ballots. We also found no evidence that the Milwaukee ballot shortage was intentional; election officials said voter turnout was higher than expected. 

The post’s claim that the ballot shortage was an effort to chip away at Republican voter turnout is contradicted by voter data. Milwaukee heavily leans left — about five times as many voters there cast ballots for liberal Dane County Judge Susan Crawford than for conservative Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel. It would be criminal for election officials to intentionally run out of ballots to deny people the right to vote, and we found no evidence that happened. 

The ballot included a nationally-watched race in which Crawford beat Schimel 55% to 45%, according to unofficial results, maintaining the court’s 4-3 liberal majority. President Donald Trump endorsed Schimel and former President Barack Obama asked voters to support Crawford. Elon Musk, a Trump adviser, paid registered voters to sign a petition rejecting "activist judges" and held a rally in the state a few days before the election.

Higher than expected turnout led to Milwaukee ballot shortage

Milwaukee election officials said April 1 that "unprecedented high turnout" resulted in seven city polling locations running out of ballots. ​​Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez said that anyone in line by 8 p.m. local time could vote and encouraged voters to stay in line, the Journal Sentinel reported. Several Wisconsin outlets published similar reports, all about Milwaukee.

On April 2, Gutiérrez told PolitiFact that an initial review showed that eight sites experienced a period of time with no ballots and about 61 ran low. The city had about 180 voting sites.

In response to the ballot shortage, Milwaukee election officials sent more staff, equipment and ballots to those locations. 

Gutiérrez said the Election Commission ordered more ballots about a week before the election because early voting was busy. But April 1’s high turnout meant the sites used the additional ballots and still needed more.

Milwaukee officials said city voter turnout was about 50% compared with about 39% in spring 2023, when the state had another Supreme Court election.

Statewide, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that based on the number of active registered Wisconsin voters — about 3.8 million — voter turnout was almost 62%. But that doesn't include people who registered at the polls on April 1. Wisconsin is one of several states that allows same-day voter registration.

"Turnout was very high, record setting, for an April court election," said Charles Franklin, a professor and director of the Marquette Law School Poll. He said the turnout was the "highest ever for an April election."

Ann Jacobs, the Wisconsin Elections Commission chair, said in an April 1 X post just before 7 p.m. Central Daylight Time, "In line at 8 pm means you vote!" and that Milwaukee officials were working hard to resolve the ballot shortage.

What happened outside Milwaukee?

Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson Joel DeSpain told PolitiFact the morning after the election that the commission received no reports of jurisdictions other than Milwaukee running out of ballots.

Two groups that monitor elections, Common Cause Wisconsin and Keep Our Republic, told PolitiFact that they heard reports of only Milwaukee running out of ballots.

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Social Media

stated on March 9, 2025 in in social media posts

Video shows President Donald Trump admitting he became president because of a “rigged” 2024 election.

We found one X post saying that Lincoln, a small community in Wood County, ran out of ballots.

Trent Miner, Wood County clerk, told PolitiFact that Lincoln ran out of pre-printed ballots and printed more. He said turnout exceeded his predictions.

Ari Mittleman, executive director of Keep Our Republic, a group that has held voter education events in Wisconsin, attributed the ballot shortage to high voter interest.

"The shortage was simply a result of record turnout — far exceeding expectations — combined with the complexity of managing multiple ballot styles due to overlapping local races," Mittleman said. "When high turnout meets a large number of unique ballot types, certain ballots may run out more quickly."

Mittleman said that Milwaukee election officials acted "swiftly and transparently" to address the ballot shortage. "The goal was to prevent any need to extend polling hours, and it appears that was successfully achieved." 

There were no verified reports of people being turned away or unable to vote because of a ballot shortage, Mittleman said.

Our ruling

An X post said, "Seven counties in Wisconsin (ran) out of ballots" and it was "intentional" to diminish Republican voter turnout.

Milwaukee elections officials said they ran out of ballots at eight municipal voting sites because of high turnout. The city sent extra ballots to those sites and said that anyone in line before 8 p.m. was eligible to vote. One voting watchdog group told PolitiFact it had seen no verified reports of voters being turned away or unable to vote.

We found no evidence that seven counties ran out of ballots, and the claim that the ballot shortage was an effort to chip away at Republican voter turnout is contradicted by voter data.  

The statement includes an element of truth because the city of Milwaukee ran out of ballots at a small number of sites. But it ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.

RELATED: PolitiFact Wisconsin’s fact-checks of Susan Crawford, Brad Schimel and the state Supreme Court race