*301 ‘That the eighteen (18) absentee ballots cast for Paul H. Rainer in Ward 3 were part of twenty-one (21) absentee ballots issued to a group of absentee voters residing at 3221 So. Lake Drive in the City of St. Francis. **237 That said twenty-one (21) absentee ballots were properly issued under Section 11.54, Wisconsin Statutes, pursuant to written postcard requests from said voters, made under Section 11.56, Wisconsin Statutes, all on U. S. postcards, typed in a uniform manner and with identical language. That all such absentee ballots were properly marked by said absentee voters as provided by Section 11.59 who executed the affidavits and the envelopes containing such ballots and stamped them for mailing back to the City Clerk of St. Francis; but that said voters did not return said absentee ballots in the envelopes by mail, or deliver the same in person, as provided by sec. 11.59, Wisconsin Statutes, but caused the same to be returned to the Clerk of the City of St. Francis by a third person, who returned the sealed envelopes to the said Clerk.’
‘It is the policy of the law to prevent as far as possible the disfranchisement of electors who have cast their ballots in good faith, and while the technical requirements set forth in the absentee voting law are mandatory, yet in meeting these requirements laws are construed so that a substantial compliance therewith is all that is required.’
‘The difference between mandatory and directory provisions of election statutes lies in the consequence of nonobservance: an act done in violation of a mandatory provision is void, whereas an act done in violation of a directory provision, while improper, may nevertheless be valid. Deviations from directory provisions of election statutes are usually termed ‘irregularities,’ and, as has been shown in the preceding subdivision, such irregularities do not vitiate an election. Statutes giving directions as to the mode and manner of conducting elections will be construed by the courts as directory, unless a noncompliance with their terms is expressly declared to be fatal, or will change or render doubtful the result, as where the statute merely provides that certain things shall be done in a given manner and time without declaring that conformity to such provisions is essential to the validity of the election. * * *'
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