Absentee ballot discovery in Wauwatosa leads to recount

The Wauwatosa Board of Canvassers recounted ballots Thursday from the Feb. 15 primary election after the city clerk found 58 unopened ballots from the race.

Wauwatosa City Clerk Steven Braatz apologized for the error, calling it a simple human mistake. Braatz said the ballots were found Monday in a bin stored in a secured vault.

Braatz said when he learned about the mistake he called the Wisconsin Election Commission, city attorney’s office and elected officials.

“We have followed the appropriate next steps per state law to make sure every lawful vote counts,” Braatz said.

Officials thought the results could change the winners for an aldermanic race that was won by only 14 votes. But after the recount, the official results were confirmed.

On Feb. 15, Patricia Stone received 233 votes, Joseph Makhlouf received 221 votes and incumbent Tim Hanson received 219 votes. With the additional ballots, Stone maintained her lead with 242 votes; Makhlouf got 231 votes and Hanson received 226 votes.

The missing ballots affected totals for another district race, but the race wasn’t close enough to change the outcome.

Braatz doesn’t believe an investigation needs to be done, but he said how ballots are stored will be simplified.

“There are simple checks and balances that just need to be followed, and the whole process internally needs to be simplified,” Braatz said, adding that this has nothing to do with “election integrity” issues.

“Training will occur, elections will take place, and we’ll have nice clean elections going forward,” Braatz said.

Makhlouf attended the recount, watching carefully, with tears in his eyes.

“When I received the call yesterday morning it was shock and disbelief,” Makhlouf said. “The idea of finding ballots in this day and age can be disconcerting. I don’t want to jump down conspiracy theory alleys, but you don’t know what’s going on, especially eight days after the election.”

Hanson was out of town Thursday, so he had a friend, Barb Schoenherr, attend the recount and act as his spokesperson. She said the situation was unfortunate but believes it was human error.

“I just want to dispel any rumors because we are way too prone to get into conspiracy theories,” Schoenherr said. “Every so often, human error is the root-cause of everything that has happened and, in this instance, that is what we are seeing.”

Schoenherr said Hanson, who was a 16-year-incumbent, won’t request a recount.

Stone will face Makhlouf in the April 5 general election to become Wauwatosa’s District 3 alder.