• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin residents living overseas or in the military will have until Nov. 19 to return their ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election under an agreement the state reached with the federal government.

The deal released Friday resolves Wisconsin's not being in compliance with a new federal law requiring states to make general election ballots available to military and overseas voters at least 45 days before the election.

Wisconsin has a Sept. 14 primary and argued in a request for a waiver that it couldn't make the Sept. 18 deadline for mailing ballots. The Defense Department denied the waiver.

The agreement reached with the U.S. Justice Department extends the deadline for ballots to be counted after the election from 10 days to 17 days. The state also agreed to send out the final ballots a day sooner.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)