Wisconsin election officials are facing a challenging situation as they grapple with a request from Robert Kennedy Jr., a onetime presidential candidate, to have stickers placed on millions of ballots to cover his name. The Wisconsin Elections Commission denied Kennedy's request to remove his name from the ballot, leading him to seek permission to have his name covered up with stickers. This move has stirred up concerns among election officials about the logistical nightmare it could create, potentially causing delays in ballot counting and disenfranchisement of voters.

Kennedy, who announced his withdrawal from the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump, is aiming to prevent splitting Republican votes and aiding Democrats in battleground states such as Wisconsin. However, the prospect of affixing stickers to already printed ballots has elicited worries from clerks across the state. Many clerks have already sent out absentee ballots with Kennedy's name printed on them, adding to the complexity of the situation.

Election officials are apprehensive about the time-consuming task of applying stickers on each ballot, estimating that it could take around 30 seconds per ballot. With potentially tens of thousands of ballots needing stickers, the workload for local election officials would be significant. Concerns about potential errors, malfunctions in voting machines, and even the possibility of ballots becoming unreadable due to partially detached stickers have been raised by various clerks and election commission attorneys.

Additionally, the lack of testing on ballots with stickers poses a risk of machine malfunctions and delays in the vote-counting process. Election Systems & Software, a major voting equipment supplier in Wisconsin, has highlighted that their machines have not been tested with stickers on ballots due to federal guidelines. The potential consequences of using stickers on such a large scale could result in costly maintenance and repairs, as well as challenges in processing ballots with and without stickers simultaneously.