Satya Rhodes-Conway, Madison’s far-left mayor, has long wagged her finger at the most basic election integrity efforts. Voter ID, to Madison leftists like the mayor, is “voter suppression.”
In 2022, when the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against the expansive use of ballot drop boxes, Rhodes-Conway called efforts to check their use an act of
“racist voter suppression” and an “attack on voting.”
But Wisconsin’s capital city, which loves to applaud itself for its “inclusivity,” is dealing with quite the black eye after its city clerk’s office disenfranchised nearly 200 voters.
A damning report by the Wisconsin Elections Commission finds Madison’s top election official oversaw a “confluence of errors” leading to an “unconscionable result” in her office’s failure to count 193 absentee ballots in November’s election. As The Federalist reported, it appears longtime City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl was more interested in going on vacation than righting a series of wrongs in a system that lost track of ballots and cost Madison voters a vital right.
“These actions resulted in nearly 200 lawful voters’ votes going uncounted – an unconscionable result,” states the bipartisan report, authored by WEC Chairwoman Ann Jacobs, a Democrat appointee, and Commissioner Don Millis, a Republican. “This profound failure undermines public confidence in elections.”
‘Dereliction of Duties’
At its meeting on Thursday, the commission is expected to consider a draft decision letter and proposed order with conclusions drawn from the election regulator’s six-month investigation. The purpose of the probe was to determine whether “Witzel-Behl took actions that were contrary to law, or abused her discretion, with respect to 193 absentee ballots that were properly received, but not counted, during the November 5, 2024, General Election.”
Spoiler Alert: She did, according to WEC investigators.
The report’s legal analysis notes five counts of election law violations, including a failure to train election inspectors and a failure to have charge and supervision over post-election tasks.
The disgraced clerk resigned in April amid investigations and after being placed on leave. A city report issued in late April found Witzel-Behl violated administrative policy and the terms of her employment contract. Her handling of the uncounted ballots showed a “dereliction of duties,” according to the report. Investigators also found the former election official’s accounts of events inconsistent.
“There is significant evidence to support the contention that her responses to questions given in interviews related to this investigation, her responses to WEC, information she provided to the Office of the City Attorney and information she provided to the Mayor’s Office deviated significantly from, and was inconsistent with, the recall of all other interviewees,” the city report states.
‘Astonishing Lack of Action’
The city’s and the commission’s reports lay out the timeline of events, from pre-election to the discovery on Nov. 12 of the first sealed green courier bag continuing 68 uncounted absentee ballots from two wards to the discovery of another 125 unprocessed ballots from another ward during the early December reconciliation process. Witzel-Behl’s office failed to report the problem to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, as required by law, until Dec. 18, nearly a month-and-a-half after the election. Even then, the city didn’t alert the WEC to the uncounted ballots as much as it requested help in a “reconciliation override” to enter the “unprocessed” votes into the state’s election system.
Elections Commission investigators found that “there was a complete lack of leadership in the City Clerk’s office.”
“It was the job of the City Clerk to immediately take action once notified about the found ballots, and she did nothing. It was the responsibility of the Deputy Clerk to take action in her absence, and he did nothing,” the report states. “These ballots were treated as unimportant and a reconciliation nuisance, rather than as the essential part of our democracy they represent.”
It seems Witzel-Behl had more pressing matters on her mind following the election. In her deposition, the former clerk said she took personal vacation days from November 13 to December 10, and “possibly” additional days at the end of December. The report suggests she checked out after the election, even as she was alerted to the ballot issues.
“While a few witnesses explained that she sent them schedules and checked email during her time off, there is no evidence that the City Clerk took any steps to investigate the uncounted ballots once they were brought to her attention,” the WEC report states.
“The lack of action by the City Clerk with regard to the found ballots is astonishing. She demonstrated no urgency, let alone interest, in including those votes in the election tally,” the document asserts.
No other Clerk’s office employee was found responsible for the election integrity breakdown.
Costly Lesson
Under the commission’s proposed order, the Madison City Clerk’s office has until Jan. 1 to make process changes in advance of the next statewide election on Feb. 17. The city must develop an internal plan detailing the employees responsible for each task related to the administration of elections, as well as a supervisory plan noting who is responsible in the event of a planned or unplanned absence. And the city clerk must make commission-ordered changes to its handling of returned or issued absentee ballots.
Madison City Attorney Michael Haas said in a statement that city officials are reviewing the commission’s report, hoping that “it can provide lessons that we and other Wisconsin clerks can learn to prevent similar errors in the future.”
It could be a costly lesson. The city faces a lawsuit on behalf of several voters whose ballots weren’t counted, each seeking $175,000 in damages. Interestingly, the lawsuit was filed by a leftist lawfare firm known for targeting conservatives and conservative causes.