{"id":2386793,"date":"2025-01-06T08:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T13:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wi-city-investigated-over-failure-to-count-nearly-200-ballots\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T08:18:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T13:18:48","slug":"wi-city-investigated-over-failure-to-count-nearly-200-ballots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wi-city-investigated-over-failure-to-count-nearly-200-ballots\/","title":{"rendered":"WI City Investigated Over Failure To Count Nearly 200 Ballots"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwi-city-investigated-over-failure-to-count-nearly-200-ballots%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2386793&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The wisconsin Elections Commission has initiated an\u200c investigation into the Madison city Clerk\u2019s\u200d office after it was\u2062 revealed that nearly 200 ballots from the November presidential election were\u2063 not\u2062 counted. This &#8220;egregious&#8221; oversight was unanimously deemed serious by the\u200d commission&#8217;s members,including its chairwoman,Ann Jacobs. the investigation was prompted by the Clerk&#8217;s delay in reporting \u200cthe issue, which she\u2062 only disclosed over a month after her office \u2063became aware of the uncounted ballots.<\/p>\n<p>The uncounted ballots included a \u2063total \u2062of \u200d193 absentee votes, which were \u2063discovered in two \u2062separate bags by election officials during sorting processes. The Clerk&#8217;s office had notified the commission on December \u200c18, requesting assistance\u200c rather than initially informing them \u2063of the uncounted votes. The city\u2019s delay in public disclosure raised concerns, \u200cas the details was\u2064 not shared with voters until December 26.<\/p>\n<p>While officials assert \u2064that the uncounted ballots did \u200bnot impact the \u2064electoral outcomes,the situation has raised significant concerns regarding\u200b election integrity in \u200dMadison,which has faced \u200dother election-related issues in recent years,including sending duplicate ballots to over 2,200 voters. The commission aims to determine why these \u2062problems were not identified sooner and to implement \u2062safeguards to prevent such issues in\u200b the future.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Wisconsin&rsquo;s election regulator has launched an investigation into the Madison City Clerk&rsquo;s office following revelations that elections officials failed to count nearly 200 ballots cast in November&rsquo;s presidential contest. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">latest election integrity problem plaguing<\/a> the leftist enclave, an &ldquo;oversight&rdquo; that even the Wisconsin Elections Commission&rsquo;s Democrat chairwoman describes as <a href=\"https:\/\/wiseye.org\/2025\/01\/02\/wisconsin-elections-commission-special-meeting-35\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;egregious.&rdquo;<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At a <a href=\"https:\/\/wiseye.org\/2025\/01\/02\/wisconsin-elections-commission-special-meeting-35\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">special meeting<\/a> late last week, the WEC unanimously voted (6-0) to open the investigation, bypassing the common practice of waiting for an outside complaint.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;My inclination was that this was such a serious oversight, I didn&rsquo;t want to wait for a complaint,&rdquo; said WEC chairwoman Ann Jacobs, one of three Democrats on the six-member commission &mdash; and a highly partisan Democrat at that. &ldquo;I felt it was important that the commission act promptly and also that we use the powers that we have to get out the information we want.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Some of this is just speed. I thought this was so egregious that it was important that we move immediately.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;Unprocessed Votes&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>Jacobs and other commissioners sounded displeased, to say the least, that it took so long for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofmadison.com\/clerk\/contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl <\/a>to to notify the commission that her office had failed to count 193 absentee ballots from the Nov. 5 election. It wasn&rsquo;t until Dec. 18, more than a month after the local elections office discovered a first batch of uncounted votes, that the clerk reached out to the commission. Even then, the city didn&rsquo;t alert the WEC to the uncounted ballots as much as it requested help in a &ldquo;reconciliation override&rdquo; to enter the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofmadison.com\/news\/2024-12-26\/disclosure-of-unprocessed-absentee-ballots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;unprocessed&rdquo;<\/a> votes into the state&rsquo;s election system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a Dec. 20 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofmadison.com\/clerk\/documents\/election\/Memo%20to%20WEC%2020241220.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> to the commission, the city finally acknowledged that on Dec. 3 elections officials &ldquo;noticed that there were many outstanding returned absentee ballots.&rdquo; After breaking the seal and opening a certificate bag, elections officials found two sealed carrier envelopes containing a total of 125 unprocessed absentee ballots.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But weeks before that, on Nov. 12, clerk&rsquo;s office staff members were &ldquo;clearing out tabulators and discovered 1 green courier bag.&rdquo; The next day, more than a week after the election, Madison elections officials opened the courier bag and found an absentee ballot carrier envelope.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The envelope contained 68 unprocessed absentee ballots, 67 for Ward 65 and 1 for Ward 68 (mis-sorted),&rdquo; the clerk&rsquo;s office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofmadison.com\/clerk\/documents\/election\/Memo%20to%20WEC%2020241220.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> in its letter to the Elections Commission. &ldquo;The City of Madison Clerk&rsquo;s Office staff plans to debrief these incidents and implement better processes to ensure all delivered carrier envelopes are accounted for and processed on Election Night,&rdquo; the letter assured.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Curiously, the city of Madison did not inform the public until Dec. 26, when it issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofmadison.com\/news\/2024-12-26\/disclosure-of-unprocessed-absentee-ballots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release<\/a> in &ldquo;the interest of full transparency.&rdquo; The city also said it would contact each of the affected voters in the three wards. Said voters were expected to receive &ldquo;a letter of apology&rdquo; for their trouble.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Elections officials say the uncounted ballots would not have changed the outcome of any of the races or referenda on the ballot in the far-left city, but the voices of 193 voters were silenced at the polls. That&rsquo;s something the left &mdash; without evidence &mdash; constantly accuses the right of doing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;A Positive, in a Sense&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpr.org\/politics\/vos-appoints-gop-attorney-don-millis-serve-wisconsin-elections-commission\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Don Millis<\/a>, former WEC chairman and one of three Republicans on the commission, said while the magnitude is significant, he wants to know why the problem was &ldquo;not determined or caught by the time of either the local canvass or the county canvass.&rdquo; The city clerk has informed the commission that it will cooperate with the investigation and that it will release requested documents without the imposition of the state&rsquo;s open records law.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad to see the city of Madison is willing to cooperate. My biggest concern is why it took a month and a half for this to come out. And that&rsquo;s very, very disturbing,&rdquo; Millis <a href=\"https:\/\/wiseye.org\/2025\/01\/02\/wisconsin-elections-commission-special-meeting-35\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> during the special meeting. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping we can determine why that happened as well.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Republican commissioner Marge Bostelmann, a routine apologist for <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-wins-lawsuit-over-illegal-voter-registration-form\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">legally suspect WEC guidance<\/a>, said she looks at Madison&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rnc-sues-pennsylvania-for-planning-to-illegally-accept-undated-mail-in-ballots\/\" title=\"RNC Sues Pennsylvania for Planning to Illegally Accept Undated Mail-in Ballots\">election integrity failures<\/a> as &ldquo;a positive, in a sense.&rdquo; She said she wants an investigation not to &ldquo;find wrong doing,&rdquo; but to be used as a way to make sure something similar doesn&rsquo;t happen again.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If there was some misstep that happened, it could have occurred in a different municipality, a smaller municipality or a bigger municipality,&rdquo; she <a href=\"https:\/\/wiseye.org\/2025\/01\/02\/wisconsin-elections-commission-special-meeting-35\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said <\/a>at the meeting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;Safeguards&rsquo; in Place<\/h2>\n<p>But Madison, Wisconsin&rsquo;s second-largest city dominated by liberal politicians and policymakers, sure seems to have posted some signifiant &ldquo;missteps&rdquo; in recent years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As The Federalist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/26\/wisconsin-congressman-wants-answers-on-madisons-2200-duplicate-ballots\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported <\/a>in late September, Witzel-Behl&rsquo;s office was under fire for mailing out duplicate ballots to more than 2,200 voters. The city clerk issued an apology <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofmadison.com\/news\/2024-09-23\/madison-clerks-office-correcting-duplicate-ballots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a> at the time, assuring that the office was &ldquo;rectifying a data processing error.&rdquo; A spokesman for the city told The Federalist the situation has been resolved and there are &ldquo;safeguards&rdquo; in place to prevent double voting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While Madison elections officials said the issue affected &ldquo;only an isolated number of voters&rdquo; and was &ldquo;quickly caught,&rdquo; the &ldquo;error&rdquo; raised more concerns among integrity advocates about a repeat performance of the 2020 election in the battleground Badger State. The Wisconsin Elections Commission and Democrat-run cities like Madison <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maciverinstitute.com\/perspectives\/the-wisconsin-elections-commission-is-still-openly-violating-wisconsin-election-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">defied election laws<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/13\/controversial-wisconsin-clerk-admits-to-violating-election-law-claims-she-doesnt-understand-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wi-congressman-wants-answers-on-2200-duplicate-ballots\/\" title=\"WI Congressman Wants Answers On 2,200 Duplicate Ballots\">caused myriad election integrity concerns<\/a><\/a> in delivering decisive votes for Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, who claimed victory over then-President Donald Trump in Wisconsin by <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Presidential_election_in_Wisconsin,_2020\">less than<\/a> 21,000 votes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And Madison was home to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofmadison.com\/clerk\/documents\/election\/Democracy%20in%20the%20Park%20training.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;Democracy in the Park&rdquo;<\/a> ballot harvesting campaign in the fall of 2020. The controversial event, conducted under the guise of Covid mitigation, netted more than <a href=\"https:\/\/captimes.com\/news\/local\/govt-and-politics\/madison-voters-drop-off-over-10-000-absentee-ballots-during-democracy-in-the-park-event\/article_a6b0cea6-32ec-5579-a2a4-8f3f9912871f.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">10,000 absentee<\/a> ballots on one Saturday in late September alone, as noted by The Capital Times. In total, over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jsonline.com\/story\/news\/2020\/11\/20\/live-updates-wisconsin-election-recount-dane-milwaukee-counties\/6353846002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">two days<\/a>, an army of poll workers stationed at parks across the city collected an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wkow.com\/news\/trump-campaign-argues-ballots-dropped-off-at-democracy-in-the-park-should-be-thrown-out\/article_1d8f44fa-4b6d-51d0-aac1-d08689ce569b.html\">estimated<\/a> 17,000 ballots.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;Do Both&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>Bob Spindell, a Republican member of the WEC, said the commission should also investigate election irregularities in Milwaukee on Election Day in November. As The Federalist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/11\/08\/a-real-mess-milwaukee-again-delivers-an-election-night-debacle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, GOP election observers discovered 13 vote tabulation machines appeared to have been tampered with. Milwaukee&rsquo;s election chief said the unsecured tabulators, which she blamed on &ldquo;human error,&rdquo; forced elections officials to rerun 30,000-plus absentee ballots through the machines. Milwaukee&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-people-have-spoken-voters-strip-away-layers-of-pennsylvania-governors-emergency-powers\/\" title=\"\u2018The People \u2026 Have Spoken\u2019: Voters Strip Away Layers Of Pennsylvania Governor\u2019s Emergency Powers\">final vote tally<\/a> was delayed until about 4:30 a.m. the day after the election.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think if we do one, we need to, you know, do both,&rdquo; Spindell <a href=\"https:\/\/wiseye.org\/2025\/01\/02\/wisconsin-elections-commission-special-meeting-35\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> in calling for an amendment to include Milwaukee in the WEC&rsquo;s investigation. The motion was rejected, with Jacobs calling Spindell&rsquo;s assertion &ldquo;a ridiculous and bizarre conspiracy theory.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;I Hate to be Cynical&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>Election integrity advocates said the Election Commission&rsquo;s investigation is a good first step, but they were dubious about what would ultimately come from the probe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This decision by WEC to investigate vote counting abnormalities in Madison is important, but this is just one of many examples of problems in recent years that have undermined confidence in our elections,&rdquo; said Annette Olson, CEO of the MacIver Institute, in a statement. The Madison-based conservative think tank helped lead the successful drive to bar private money in election administration, like <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/12\/26\/the-incoming-congress-should-immediately-ban-zuckbucks-across-the-nation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Zuckbucks<\/a>, through a state constitutional amendment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Every ballot matters because every voter matters, and concerns about vote count irregularities in Madison must be addressed on behalf&nbsp;of all its voters and indeed, on behalf of all Wisconsin voters,&rdquo; Kerri Toloczko, executive vice president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/whoscounting.us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Election Integrity Network,<\/a> said in the joint statement with MacIver. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ron Heuer, president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsinvoteralliance.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wisconsin Voter Alliance<\/a> isn&rsquo;t holding his breath.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Now WEC is going to investigate the actions of Witzel-Behl. Let us see what comes from that. What she did is clearly in violation of the law,&rdquo; he wrote in a WVA update distributed on Sunday. &ldquo;I hate to be cynical, but my guess is, that, after the investigation is completed, there will be no consequences for Witzel-Behl, simply a &lsquo;stern&rsquo; letter from WEC that says, do not do this again.&nbsp;I hope I am wrong, but they have not shown much courage thus far.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-knew-100-percent-he-was-fighting-for-the-little-guy-former-top-trump-economic-adviser\/\" title=\"Trump Knew \u2018100 Percent\u2019 He Was \u2018Fighting for the Little Guy\u2019: Former Top Trump Economic Adviser\">award-winning investigative reporter<\/a> and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wisconsin&#8217;s election regulator is investigating Madison&#8217;s City Clerk for not counting nearly 200 ballots from November&#8217;s presidential election, a serious oversight deemed &#8220;egregious&#8221; by the WEC chairwoman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2386794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-05-at-9.37.03-PM-1024x528.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[44644,43604,40938,47974,39479],"class_list":["post-2386793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ballot-count","tag-election-investigation","tag-voting-issues","tag-wi-city","tag-wisconsin-elections"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-05-at-9.37.03-PM-1024x528.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2386793"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2386797,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386793\/revisions\/2386797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2386794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2386793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2386793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2386793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}