Wisconsin Elections Commission to investigate ‘egregious’ election failure that left nearly 200 Madison ballots uncounted

Wisconsin’s Elections Commission has ordered an investigation into how nearly 200 ballots from the city of Madison went uncounted in November’s election.

In a special meeting Thursday, the Commission chair criticized the error as “egregious” and questioned why it took more than six weeks for the issue to be reported to them.

The 193 uncounted absentee ballots from three of the capital city’s election wards would not have changed the outcome of any race or referendum on the local, statewide or national level, Elections Commission officials have confirmed.

The Commission often investigates allegations of election-related problems in response to specific complaints. A complaint has not yet been filed over Madison’s uncounted ballots, but Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs said she believes the commission should act immediately. At her request, commissioners voted 6-0 on Thursday to authorize an investigation.

“Given the seriousness of what happened here, our lack of knowledge (and) information that was not given to us in a timely fashion, I think we need to do something more formal,” Jacobs, a Democrat, said during the meeting.

Of the uncounted ballots, 125 were from ward 56, which is west of downtown. Another 67 ballots were from ward 65, near the southeast corner of Shorewood Hills. And a single ballot was from ward 68, after it was mis-sorted, according to a memo from the clerk’s office.

Across the city of Madison, more than 174,000 voters cast ballots in this fall’s election.

Commissioners criticize timeline of information’s release

Although city officials say Madison elections personnel first learned a week after Election Day that some of Madison’s ballots hadn’t been processed, the problem didn’t become public until mid-December.

“My biggest concern is why it took a month and a half for this to come out,” Republican Commissioner Don Millis said during Thursday’s meeting. “That’s very, very disturbing.”

On Nov. 12, staff with the office of Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl first discovered a sealed envelope with uncounted ballots from wards 65 and 68, according to a timeline later released by the mayor’s office. Staffers discovered that envelope inside a sealed courier bag while they were cleaning out tabulators after the election, according to the clerk’s office.

Then, during the post-election reconciliation process on Dec. 3, clerk’s office staff discovered another two sealed envelopes with unprocessed ballots from ward 56, the timeline says.

The clerk’s office emailed the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Dec. 18 about the unprocessed ballots and requested guidance.

On Dec. 19, the clerk contacted Madison’s city attorney about the issue, according to the mayor’s office.

The city attorney notified the mayor’s office on Dec. 20 and, six days after that, on Dec. 26, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Witzel-Behl each issued a statement informing the public about the problem.

In her statement the day after Christmas, Rhodes-Conway apologized for the issue and called it “unacceptable.”

“This oversight is a significant departure from the high standard our residents expect and must be addressed and avoided in future elections,” the mayor’s statement said. “Unfortunately, clerk’s office staff were apparently aware of the oversight for some time and the mayor’s office was not notified of the unprocessed ballots until Dec. 20. … We immediately asked the clerk’s office to prepare an explanation and then moved quickly to inform the public.”

Rhodes-Conway sent a message to election commissioners on Thursday, in which she expressed support for the investigation and pledged the city’s cooperation. Witzel-Behl also wrote to commissioners promising to cooperate and to provide any documents to the commission without requiring a formal a public records request.

The clerk’s office has promised to contact each affected voter, and to send them apology letters. Going forward, each Madison polling location will get a list of absentee envelope seal numbers that will be verified as counted on Election Day, according to the clerk’s office.

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

Witzel-Behl is currently under a five-year contract, which expires in September 2026. Madison’s Common Council confirmed that agreement in 2021 at Rhodes-Conway’s recommendation.

Wisconsin’s Nov. 5 election included a U.S. Senate seat, numerous contested races for the U.S. House of Representatives and the state Legislature and a referendum that changed wording in Wisconsin’s Constitution.

In the presidential race, Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris in Wisconsin by nearly 29,400 votes, official results from the Wisconsin Elections Commission show.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission certified those results on Nov. 29, and the state’s GOP electors formally cast Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes in Trump’s favor on Dec. 17.