Following rumors that nearly 200 votes were cast in November’s presidential election, Wisconsin’s vote regulation has launched an investigation into the Madison City Clerk’s business.  ,
It’s the latest election integrity issue plaguing the communist colony, an “oversight” that even the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s Democrat president describes as “egregious” . ,
At a special meeting late last week, the WEC unanimously voted (6-0 ) to open the investigation, bypassing the common practice of waiting for an outside complaint.  ,
” My impulse was that this was quite a severe monitoring, I didn’t want to wait for a problem”, said WEC president Ann Jacobs, one of three Democrats on the six-member payment — and a very partisan Democrat at that. I argued that it was crucial that the committee act quickly and that we make use of the authority to release the information we require.
” Some of this is simply speed. I believed that because this was but obscene, we had to walk on right away.
Raw Seats:
Jacobs and additional commission sounded uneasy, to say the least, about how long it took Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl to report to the commission after her department failed to qualify the 193 absentee ballots cast in the Nov. 5 vote. The secretary reached out to the percentage about December 18 more than a fortnight after the local elections office found a second batch of untold votes. Even then, the city didn’t notice the WEC to the untold ballots as much as it requested support in a “reconciliation bypass” to enter the “unprocessed” votes into the state’s election system.  ,
In a Dec. 20 letter to the commission, the city finally acknowledged that on Dec. 3 elections officials “noticed that there were many outstanding returned absentee ballots”. Elections officials discovered two sealed carrier envelopes containing a total of 125 unprocessed absentee ballots after breaking the seal and opening a certificate bag.  ,
But weeks before that, on Nov. 12, clerk’s office staff members were” clearing out tabulators and discovered 1 green courier bag”. More than a week after the election, Madison elections officials discovered an absentee ballot carrier envelope in the courier bag the following day.  ,
” The envelope contained 68 unprocessed absentee ballots, 67 for Ward 65 and 1 for Ward 68 ( mis-sorted )”, the clerk’s office wrote in its letter to the Elections Commission. The letter assured that” The City of Madison Clerk’s Office plans to debrief these incidents and implement better processes to ensure all mailed carrier envelopes are accounted for and processed on Election Night.  ,
Curiously, the city of Madison did not inform the public until Dec. 26, when it issued a press release in” the interest of full transparency”. Additionally, the city stated that it would get in touch with each of the three wards ‘ voters. Said voters were expected to receive” a letter of apology” for their trouble.  ,
The voices of 193 voters were silenced at the polls, according to election officials, who claim that the uncounted ballots would not have affected the results of any of the races or referenda on the ballot in the far-left city. That’s something the left consistently accuses the right of doing, without any proof.  ,
‘ A Positive, in a Sense ‘
Although the magnitude is significant, former WEC chairman and one of the three Republican members of the commission, Don Millis, asks why the issue was” not determined or caught by the time of either the local canvass or the county canvass.” The city clerk has informed the commission that it will cooperate with the investigation and that it will release the requested documents without violating the state’s open records law.  ,
” I’m glad to see the city of Madison is willing to cooperate. Why it took a month and a half for this to come out is what I’m most concerned about. And that’s very, very disturbing”, Millis said during the special meeting. ” I’m hoping we can find out why that happened as well.”
Republican commissioner Marge Bostelmann, a routine apologist for legally suspect WEC guidance, said she looks at Madison’s election integrity failures as” a positive, in a sense”. She stated that she wants an investigation to be used as a tool to prevent something similar from occurring again rather than to “find wrong doing.”
” If there was some misstep that happened, it could have occurred in a different municipality, a smaller municipality or a bigger municipality”, she said at the meeting.  ,
‘ Safeguards’ in Place
But Madison, Wisconsin’s second-largest city dominated by liberal politicians and policymakers, sure seems to have posted some signifiant “missteps” in recent years.  ,
As The Federalist reported in late September, Witzel-Behl’s office was under fire for mailing out duplicate ballots to more than 2, 200 voters. The city clerk at the time assured the office that it was “rectifying a data processing error” in an apology statement. The situation has been resolved, a city spokesman told The Federalist, and there are” safeguards” in place to stop double voting.  ,
While Madison elections officials claimed the error was “quickly caught” and that only an “isolated number of voters” were affected by the issue, it still raised more questions for integrity advocates about a repeat of the 2020 election’s outcome in the battleground Badger State. In delivering decisive votes to Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, who defeated then-President Donald Trump in Wisconsin by less than 21, 000 votes, the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Democrat-run cities like Madison defied election laws and raised numerous issues with election integrity.  ,
And in Madison, the” Democracy in the Park” ballot-gathering initiative was launched in the fall of 2020. The controversial event, conducted under the guise of Covid mitigation, netted more than 10, 000 absentee ballots on one Saturday in late September alone, as noted by The Capital Times. In total, over two days, an army of poll workers stationed at parks across the city collected an estimated 17, 000 ballots.  ,
‘ Do Both’
Republican WEC member Bob Spindell argued that the commission should also look into possible election-related irregularities in Milwaukee on November 24. GOP election officials discovered 13 vote tabulation machines that appeared to have been hacked, according to The Federalist’s report. Milwaukee’s election chief said the unsecured tabulators, which she blamed on “human error”, forced elections officials to rerun 30, 000-plus absentee ballots through the machines. Milwaukee’s final vote tally was delayed until about 4: 30 a. m. the day after the election.  ,
” I think if we do one, we need to, you know, do both”, Spindell said in calling for an amendment to include Milwaukee in the WEC’s investigation. The motion was rejected, with Jacobs calling Spindell’s assertion” a ridiculous and bizarre conspiracy theory” . ,
I” Hate to be Cynical.”
Election integrity advocates argued that the Election Commission’s investigation is a good first step, but they were uncertain about what would ultimately result from the investigation.  ,
The WEC’s decision to investigate vote counting irregularities in Madison is significant, but it’s just one of many instances of issues that have undermined voter confidence in recent elections, according to 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 Zuckbucks, through a state constitutional amendment.  ,
” Every ballot matters because every voter matters, and concerns about vote count irregularities in Madison must be addressed on behalf , of all its voters and indeed, on behalf of all Wisconsin voters”, Kerri Toloczko, executive vice president of the Election Integrity Network, said in the joint statement with MacIver.  ,
Ron Heuer, president of the Wisconsin Voter Alliance isn’t holding his breath.  ,
” Now WEC is going to investigate the actions of Witzel-Behl. Let’s see what results from that. What she did is in fact a violation of the law,” he wrote in a WVA update released on Sunday. ” 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’ stern’ letter from WEC that says, do not do this again.  , I hope I am wrong, but they have not shown much courage thus far”.
Matt Kittle covers The Federalist’s senior elections coverage. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
