Presque Isle reelects town board chair in court-ordered redo of spring election

Residents in a small, northern Wisconsin town have reelected their former town board chair in a special, court-ordered redo of a spring election.

John McLean was declared the unofficial winner of Presque Isle’s town board election Tuesday. He defeated former town clerk Lorine Walters by 29 votes out of a total 559 ballots cast.

The race was close, but not razor-thin like it was in April. That’s when Walters was declared the unofficial winner by a single vote.

McLean filed a lawsuit over the April results, which he alleged were erroneous. Months of hearings were held, and ultimately, Vilas County Circuit Court Judge Martha Milanowski ruled two absentee ballots from April were illegally cast. She also found there were “procedural errors” with three additional absentee ballots in the election overseen by Walters.

Milanowski’s ruling said the findings “seriously undermine the appearance of fairness” in the spring election and ordered a new election to be held Nov. 14.

According to the unofficial results, 84 percent of Presque Isle’s registered voters cast ballots in the redo election.