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Madison’s metropolis clerk, Maribeth Witzel-Behl, resigned Monday as town and state continued to look into how she and her workers misplaced observe of practically 200 ballots that by no means obtained counted in November.
Witzel-Behl, who took the submit in 2006, gained extensive recognition for working elections within the state’s second largest metropolis throughout the pandemic and a number of presidential elections. In all, she oversaw greater than 60 elections.
However her repute took a blow within the November 2024 election, when 193 ballots from two polling stations went lacking on Election Day and by no means obtained counted. Clerks and the Wisconsin Elections Fee have criticized her for failing to promptly inform state and metropolis officers concerning the subject.
“On behalf of metropolis of Madison residents, I wish to lengthen my gratitude to Maribeth for her dedication and dedication to public service,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway mentioned.
Witzel-Behl was positioned on go away in March, with Mike Haas, town lawyer and former fee administrator, performing as clerk within the interim. It’s unclear who will change Witzel-Behl; Haas beforehand informed Votebeat he doesn’t need the job completely. Town is enterprise a nationwide search, officers mentioned.
Along with ongoing metropolis and state investigations, the November error has additionally led to authorized motion, with a liberal election legislation group in search of $34 million in damages on the grounds voters had been disenfranchised.
In its probe, the Wisconsin Elections Fee discovered that errors by the clerk’s workplace started effectively earlier than Election Day, together with printing ballot books for the 2 polling websites sooner than really helpful by the fee.
Had the ballot books been printed later, they’d have routinely indicated that sure ballots had been returned, making it clearer to ballot staff on Election Day that some ballots had been acquired however not counted.
Clerk’s workers discovered the primary batch of ballots — 68 in whole — in a beforehand unopened courier bag within the clerk’s workplace on Nov. 12, whereas Dane County was in the midst of certifying the election.
There are conflicting accounts of what occurred subsequent: An unidentified Madison election employee claimed that the county was knowledgeable concerning the ballots that day, however Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell has denied that. Witzel-Behl, who in line with data obtained by Votebeat was on trip for a lot of the time following Election Day, didn’t comply with up with the county, and people ballots had been by no means counted.
A second batch of 125 ballots was found within the clerk’s workplace on Dec. 3. Nevertheless, workers didn’t relay that data to the Wisconsin Elections Fee till Dec. 18, effectively after the state licensed the election. The fee then notified Haas concerning the error, and he relayed the information to the mayor’s workplace — which is when each realized of the issue for the primary time.
Going through rising scrutiny, Witzel-Behl proposed procedural adjustments, together with requiring clerk’s workers to confirm all election supplies acquired on election night time and making certain that every polling place receives an inventory of the absentee poll courier baggage it handles to stop any from being missed.
These measures had been applied totally within the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket election, for which she was on go away. Town apparently didn’t have any important oversights in that election. Metropolis officers say they’re nonetheless refining the procedural adjustments.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat primarily based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
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