State election commission will require Madison employees to answer questions about uncounted ballots

In a unanimous decision, the Wisconsin Elections Commission voted to hold depositions of Madison elections officials including City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl. The commission wants more information about how 193 ballots went uncounted during the presidential election.

The mistake wasn’t reported to state officials for weeks.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs didn’t mince words about Madison’s ballot snafu during a Friday meeting. She said she was “shocked” by the preliminary investigative report from commission staff.

Jacobs pointed to findings showing Witzel-Behl’s office printed poll books for the two voting wards where ballots were missed two weeks before the election, on Oct. 23. The uncounted ballots didn’t get to the wards until days later.

Commission guidance urges clerks to print poll books as close to an election as possible to account for last minute registration changes.

Poll books show the names of all registered voters within a specific ward, which are later signed by voters before they cast their ballot.

“I am genuinely troubled by the number of profoundly bad decisions that are recited in these materials leading up to election day,” Jacobs fumed. “And the idea that you should print out your poll books two weeks before the election in the city of Madison, where you have a population of students who notoriously vote the weekend before or while you have extended early voting, that’s just that is a nonsensical decision.”

Jacobs said it’s evidence of “someone who’s deciding it’s easier” to print poll books when they have more time “as opposed to understanding what the purpose of a poll book is.”

“And then we’ve got, what I can only say is this absolutely shocking set of dates post election, where every opportunity to fix this is ignored,” Jacobs said. 

She said it “feels like a complete lack of leadership” by Witzel-Behl “and a refusal to be where the buck stops.”

Republican commissioner Bob Spindell, who sometimes quarrels with Jacobs during meetings, was on the same page. He said with his years of experience working on the Milwaukee Election Commission he can understand bags of ballots being missed.

“I guess what concerns me is what happened after the fact, after the polls were closed and everything was looked at,” Spindel said. “Do we know, was the clerk on vacation?”

Democratic commissioner Mark Thomsen asked whether anything can be done to change information in the state’s WisVote system that indicates those voters didn’t participate in the presidential election when they actually did. 

“Campaigns are run on who voted and who didn’t vote,” Thomsen said. “And we’ve got 193 people who actually voted, and we shouldn’t promote the lie that they didn’t.”

With a unanimous vote, the commission’s six members approved a motion to have Jacobs and former WEC chair Don Millis conduct or supervise depositions of Madison city employees and anyone else with personal knowledge about the uncounted ballots. Another unanimous vote ordered commission staff to draft new guidance for clerks ahead of the April 1 election to prevent clerks from making the mistakes in Madison from happening again.

A statement sent to WPR by Madison city spokesperson Dylan Brogan said the clerk’s office “is fully cooperating with the Wisconsin Election Commission’s investigation.”

“The City completely agrees with statements from Commissioners that every legal ballot needs to be counted accurately,” Brogan said in an email. “The Clerk’s Office has already implemented new procedures and safeguards to ensure this never happens again. We appreciate any and all guidance from the WEC that could further strengthen the integrity of our elections. The City will also conduct its own internal review that may lead to further changes.”

On Thursday, four of the impacted voters launched a class-action lawsuit seeking $175,000 each. They’re represented by liberal firm Law Forward, which said there is “a price to pay” when voters are disenfranchised.