Wisconsin election board orders Madison to observe new procedures

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The Wisconsin Elections Fee ordered Madison election officers to observe a number of particular election procedures to make sure that ballots don’t go lacking once more within the capital metropolis, rejecting arguments by the interim clerk that the orders could exceed the company’s authorized authority. 

The fee’s 5-1 vote Friday got here a month after it withheld a primary set of proposed orders amid pushback from Madison and Dane County officers and requested town to suggest its personal treatments. Madison interim Clerk Mike Haas stated the specificity of the fee’s unique proposed orders “would set a troubling precedent.”

Town did submit its proposals, however the fee rejected them as overly broad and finalized orders that had been largely just like those it proposed in July, with some minor revisions, together with citations of the authorized foundation for every order.  

The orders require Madison officers to create an inner plan detailing which election activity is assigned to which worker; print pollbooks no sooner than the Tuesday earlier than every election; develop an in depth report to trace absentee ballots; and search by way of election supplies for lacking ballots earlier than town’s election canvassing board meets to finalize outcomes.

The WEC motion responds to lapses by the Madison clerk’s workplace, then headed by Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl, after the November 2024 presidential election, when staffers misplaced observe of 193 ballots and didn’t report discovering them till nicely previous the state deadline for counting. The fee launched its investigation into the matter in January.

Clerk’s cookie baking factored into commissioners’ dialogue

Throughout discussions forward of the vote, Commissioner Don Millis, a Republican, cited Votebeat’s reporting that Witzel-Behl spent a protracted post-election trip at dwelling — not on an out-of-state journey, as he had believed — baking 1000’s of cookies when some misplaced ballots had been found. That, he stated, factored into his vote for stricter orders.

“She couldn’t be bothered to show off the oven, to come back to the workplace to determine if the Ward 65 ballots could possibly be counted,” he stated. “The failure to say that the clerk was available to handle this difficulty, together with the truth that not one of the metropolis officers we depose felt it was their job to get the ballots counted, makes me much more decided that the Fee should impose the instructions in our order.”

Equally, fee Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, stated it was “peculiar” that clerk’s workplace workers by no means informed commissioners throughout their monthslong investigation that they rented vehicles on metropolis time to ship cookies after the poll discovery. 

These deposed “had been all a part of the cookie crew,” she stated forward of her vote. “Why didn’t they inform us about that? Why didn’t town of Madison ever point out this? Why did no one deliver this up?” 

In a memo circulated forward of the assembly, fee workers stated the scope of the error “warrants an in depth order from the Fee correcting (Witzel-Behl’s) workplace’s insurance policies and procedures, and making certain these points are literally mounted earlier than the subsequent statewide election.”

Haas, who was previously the fee administrator, disagreed with the unique proposed orders. He stated the fee’s authority “doesn’t prolong to requiring the long run implementation of particular procedures in extra of these required within the statutes.”

However fee workers pushed again, calling it “unreasonable and absurd” to learn state regulation as barring the fee from ordering particular treatments.

In some instances, the commissioners made the necessities extra stringent than what Madison proposed, however extra lenient than the fee’s initially proposed orders.

For instance, one order the fee initially proposed would have required Madison to print pollbooks no before the Thursday earlier than Election Day, regardless of state regulation calling on officers solely to have the “most present official registration listing.” Haas requested an order extra in step with what state regulation outlines, printing the ballots as near Election Day as potential.

The ultimate order units the deadline for printing pollbooks on the Tuesday earlier than Election Day — two days sooner than first proposed — and requires that they be delivered no later than the Friday earlier than the election.

Witzel-Behl’s workplace printed pollbooks for the 2 wards that misplaced ballots on Oct. 23, almost two weeks earlier than Election Day. The fee stated printing that early made it tougher for officers to trace absentee ballots returned earlier than Election Day and tougher for ballot employees to see what number of ballots went uncounted.

Interim clerk’s objections to the fee’s order

Haas, who took over as interim clerk after Witzel-Behl was suspended in March, informed Votebeat on the Tuesday forward of the assembly that it was “method too early” to consider whether or not Madison would enchantment the fee’s orders in court docket. In a press release after Friday’s vote, he stated he was grateful that the fee altered some orders after town’s suggestions.

“The query is which degree of presidency is finest suited and licensed to find out particular procedures that work for the municipality in going above and past what the statutes require,” he informed Votebeat. “We stay up for working with the Fee to make sure compliance with state regulation.”

Mark Thomsen, a Democratic commissioner, stated he wasn’t comfy with the company beating up on Madison over errors made below a former clerk when a brand new everlasting clerk hasn’t but been employed.

On the assembly, Thomsen stated he was uncomfortable imposing burdens on a brand new clerk that “nobody else has to observe.”

“This order appears spiteful, and I don’t wish to go there,” he stated, earlier than casting the lone dissent. Republicans Millis, Bob Spindell and Marge Bostelmann joined Democrats Carrie Riepl and Jacobs in approving the orders.

State regulation permits the fee to “require any election official to adapt his or her conduct to the regulation, restrain an official from taking any motion inconsistent with the regulation or require an official to appropriate any motion or determination inconsistent with the regulation.”

Most of the orders, reminiscent of assigning particular workers to every election activity, should not explicitly talked about in statute.

Addressing claims that the orders had been too detailed, fee workers legal professional Angela O’Brien Sharpe stated, “If the Legislature supposed for the fee to solely be capable to difficulty normal orders, they’d have written a regulation to say simply that.”

In a press release following the vote, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway stated town is reorganizing the workplace to enhance effectivity and accountability.

“We respect the Wisconsin Elections Fee contemplating our enter and amending its orders to replicate that suggestions,” she stated. “I hope the WEC’s investigation may also help inform finest practices for election clerks across the state.” 

Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based mostly in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.

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