Madison’s clerk placed on leave amid investigation into uncounted ballots

Madison’s mayor has placed City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by the city into how nearly 200 absentee ballots went uncounted during the November 2024 election.

Wednesday’s announcement comes with nearly three weeks to go until Wisconsin’s April 1 election, which includes a hotly contested state Supreme Court race. In-person absentee voting begins March 18.

“Given the nature of the issues being investigated, we felt this was a necessary step to maintain public confidence in the operations of our Clerk’s office,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said in a statement Wednesday morning. “The City of Madison places an incredibly high value on our ability to conduct elections to the highest standards, and will spare no City resource to ensure that each vote is counted for the upcoming election.” 

The 193 uncounted absentee ballots from three of Madison’s election wards would not have changed the outcome of any race or referendum, state election officials have confirmed.

But members of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission have questioned how the failure was allowed to happen, and why it took more than six weeks for the problem to be reported to the commission.

In January, the state’s election commission voted unanimously to investigate how the error happened. Last week, the commission agreed in another unanimous vote to depose Witzel-Behl and other city election officials in an attempt to get more answers about the uncounted ballots.

During a special meeting Wednesday afternoon, the commission approved guidance that will be sent to clerks ahead of the April 1 election. Officials agreed to draft the list of best practices after Madison’s uncounted ballots came to light.

The guidance does not add any new rules. Rather, it summarizes pre-existing rules and is intended to serve as a checklist for clerks, as they make sure that all ballots have been counted.

“The goal of the communication is just to provide a one-stop-shop overview of the necessary tasks that an election official should follow in order to ensure that all returned absentee ballots are delivered to the proper polling place or central count location,” said Riley Willman, the elections supervisor for the agency.

Meanwhile, the liberal firm Law Forward has initiated a class action lawsuit against the city on behalf of Madison voters whose ballots went uncounted.

City attorney to take over clerk’s office

City Attorney Mike Haas will take over as acting city clerk on an interim basis while Witzel-Behl is on leave. During that period, he’ll continue serving as city attorney, according to a news release.

Haas specializes in election law, and he has previously served as administrator of and legal counsel to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

“The City will be allocating additional resources to support the Clerk’s office during this period to make sure that preparations for the April 1 election and all other aspects of the office’s operations continue to run as smoothly as possible,” a news release from the mayor’s office says.

Witzel-Behl has been Madison’s city clerk since 2006, after she was appointed by then-Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. She’s since been re-appointed by former Mayor Paul Soglin and by Rhodes-Conway.

The clerk is currently operating under a five-year contract, approved by Madison’s Common Council in 2021. Her annual salary is $152,308.

The city’s internal investigation into Witzel-Behl is being conducted by Madison’s Human Resources Department. Along with November’s uncounted ballots, the investigation will also examine “other aspects of [the clerk’s] performance,” according to a news release.