Latest news with #WisconsinElections
Al Arabiya
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Former wisconsin clerk who failed to count ballots broke laws, the state's elections commission says
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A confluence of errors, including unlawful actions by the former clerk in Wisconsin's capital city, led to nearly 200 absentee ballots not being counted in the November presidential election, an investigation by the state elections commission released Wednesday concluded. Maribeth Witzel-Behl resigned as Madison city clerk in April amid investigations by the city and the Wisconsin Elections Commission into the missing ballots. No outcome of any race was affected by the missing ballots. The city's investigation released in April determined that Witzel-Behl didn't break any laws but did violate multiple policies and her contractual duty to supervise elections and maintain professional standards. But the elections commission report concluded that there is probable cause that Witzel-Behl broke five election laws. The election commission's investigation was not a criminal probe. Whether the former clerk is actually charged with any crimes would be up to the Dane County district attorney. The elections commission report concluded that Witzel-Behl broke state law for failing to properly supervise an election, not providing the most recent current registration information for pollbooks in two wards, improperly handling the return of absentee ballots, not properly canvassing the returns as it pertained to the 193 uncounted ballots, and failing to provide sufficient information for the municipal board of canvassers to do its work. 'The failure to count the 193 ballots in Madison was a result of a confluence of errors,' the report concluded. It determined that Madison did not have procedures to place to track the number of absentee ballots going to a polling place, and there was a complete lack of leadership in the clerk's office. 'Instead of working to solve the problem, Witzel-Behl went on vacation for weeks after the election,' the report said. 'These ballots were treated as unimportant and a reconciliation nuisance rather than as the essential part of our democracy they represent,' the report said. The report also said that an unauthorized person was found sleeping in the building owned by Dane County and used by the city to store ballots. According to one of the workers at the facility, that person could have accessed the room where the security carts were stored. On multiple occasions, workers found unlocked doors at the building, a former brewery near the Madison airport, the report said. The report makes seven recommended orders for the city to comply with to improve its operations. The Wisconsin Elections Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to accept the report's findings and recommendations at its July 17 meeting. Madison city attorney and acting clerk Michael Haas said in a statement that he hoped the report can provide lessons that 'we and other Wisconsin clerks can learn to prevent similar errors in the future.' The city has already implemented additional safeguards and procedures that were in place for elections earlier this year to ensure that all eligible absentee ballots are accounted for, Haas said. He declined further comment until after the commission's vote on the report. The elections commission investigation was led by Democrat Ann Jacobs, the commission's chair, and former chair Republican Don Millis. They are both attorneys. This marks the first time in the eight-year history of the commission that it has used its investigatory authority. The investigation determined that two bags of uncounted absentee ballots likely never made it to the wards where they should have been counted. Dane County canvassers discovered 68 uncounted absentee ballots in a tabulator bin on Nov. 12, a week after the election, and another 125 uncounted ballots in a courier bag the first week of December. The clerk's office did not notify the Wisconsin Elections Commission of the oversight until Dec. 18, almost a month and a half after the election and well after results were certified on Nov. 29. Witzel-Behl told investigators she wasn't aware of any uncounted votes until the week of Dec. 10, even though she apparently sent an email to her staff on Nov. 27 to keep the ballots sealed and record the voters as having participated. Four voters whose ballots weren't counted have filed claims for $175,000 each, the first step toward a class-action lawsuit.
The Independent
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Former Wisconsin clerk who failed to count ballots broke laws, the state's elections commission says
A 'confluence of errors' including unlawful actions by the former clerk in Wisconsin 's capital city led to nearly 200 absentee ballots not being counted in the November presidential election, an investigation by the state elections commission released Wednesday concluded. Maribeth Witzel-Behl resigned as Madison city clerk in April amid investigations by the city and the Wisconsin Elections Commission into the missing ballots. No outcome of any race was affected by the missing ballots. The city's investigation, released in April, determined that Witzel-Behl didn't break any laws but did violate multiple policies and her contractual duty to supervise elections and maintain professional standards. But the elections commission report concluded that there is probable cause that Witzel-Behl broke five election laws. The election commission's investigation was not a criminal probe. Whether the former clerk is actually charged with any crimes would be up to the Dane County district attorney. The elections commission report concluded that Witzel-Behl broke state law for failing to properly supervise an election; not providing the most recent current registration information for pollbooks in two wards; improperly handing the return of absentee ballots; not properly canvassing the returns as it pertained to the 193 uncounted ballots; and failing to provide sufficient information for the municipal board of canvassers to do its work. 'The failure to count the 193 ballots in Madison was a result of a confluence of errors,' the report concluded. It determined that Madison did not have procedures to place to track the number of absentee ballots going to a polling place and there was a 'complete lack of leadership' in the clerk's office. Instead of working to solve the problem, Witzel-Behl went on vacation for weeks after the election, the report said. 'These ballots were treated as unimportant and a reconciliation nuisance, rather than as the essential part of our democracy they represent,' the report said. The report also said that an 'unauthorized person' was found sleeping in the building owned by Dane County and used by the city to store ballots. According to one of the workers at the facility, that person could have accessed the room where the security carts were stored. On multiple occasions, workers found unlocked doors at the building, a former brewery near the Madison airport, the report said. The report makes seven recommended orders for the city to comply with to improve its operations. The Wisconsin Elections Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to accept the report's findings and recommendations at its July 17 meeting. Madison city attorney and acting clerk Michael Haas said in a statement that he hoped the report 'can provide lessons that we and other Wisconsin clerks can learn to prevent similar errors in the future.' The city has already implemented additional safeguards and procedures that were in place for elections earlier this year to ensure that all eligible absentee ballots are accounted for, Haas said. He declined further comment until after the commission's vote on the report. The elections commission investigation was led by Democrat Ann Jacobs, the commission's chair, and former chair Republican Don Millis. They are both attorneys. This marks the first time in the eight-year history of the commission that it has used its investigatory authority. The investigation determined that two bags of uncounted absentee ballots likely never made it to the wards where they should have been counted. Dane County canvassers discovered 68 uncounted absentee ballots in a tabulator bin on Nov. 12, a week after the election, and another 125 uncounted ballots in a courier bag the first week of December. The clerk's office did not notify the Wisconsin Elections Commission of the oversight until Dec. 18, almost a month and a half after the election and well after results were certified on Nov. 29. Witzel-Behl told investigators she wasn't aware of any uncounted votes until the week of Dec. 10, even though she apparently sent an email to her staff on Nov. 27 to keep the ballots sealed and record the voters as having participated. Four voters whose ballots weren't counted have filed claims for $175,000 each, the first step toward a class-action lawsuit.
Associated Press
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Wisconsin elections commission says former Madison clerk broke laws
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A 'confluence of errors' including unlawful actions by the former clerk in Wisconsin's capital city led to nearly 200 absentee ballots not being counted in the November presidential election, an investigation by the state elections commission released Wednesday concluded. Maribeth Witzel-Behl resigned as Madison city clerk in April amid investigations by the city and the Wisconsin Elections Commission into the missing ballots. No outcome of any race was affected by the missing ballots. The city's investigation, released in April, determined that Witzel-Behl didn't break any laws but did violate multiple policies and her contractual duty to supervise elections and maintain professional standards. But the elections commission report concluded that there is probable cause that Witzel-Behl broke five election laws. Whether she is actually charged with any crimes would be up to the Dane County district attorney. The elections commission report concluded that Witzel-Behl broke state law for failing to properly supervise an election; not providing the most recent current registration information for pollbooks in two wards; improperly handing the return of absentee ballots; not properly canvassing the returns as it pertained to the 193 uncounted ballots; and failing to provide sufficient information for the municipal board of canvassers to do its work. 'The failure to count the 193 ballots in Madison was a result of a confluence of errors,' the report concluded. It determined that Madison did not have procedures to place to track the number of absentee ballots going to a polling place and there was a 'complete lack of leadership' in the clerk's office. Instead of working to solve the problem, Witzel-Behl went on vacation for weeks after the election, the report said. 'These ballots were treated as unimportant and a reconciliation nuisance, rather than as the essential part of our democracy they represent,' the report said. The report also said that an 'unauthorized person' was found sleeping in the building owned by Dane County and used by the city to store ballots. According to one of the workers at the facility, that person could have accessed the room where the security carts were stored. On multiple occasions, workers found unlocked doors at the building, a former brewery near the Madison airport, the report said. The report makes seven recommended orders for the city to comply with to improve its operations. The Wisconsin Elections Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to accept the report's findings and recommendations at its July 17 meeting. Madison city attorney and acting clerk Michael Haas said in a statement that he hoped the report 'can provide lessons that we and other Wisconsin clerks can learn to prevent similar errors in the future.' The city has already implemented additional safeguards and procedures that were in place for elections earlier this year to ensure that all eligible absentee ballots are accounted for, Haas said. He declined further comment until after the commission's vote on the report. The elections commission investigation was led by Democrat Ann Jacobs, the commission's chair, and former chair Republican Don Millis. They are both attorneys. This marks the first time in the eight-year history of the commission that it has used its investigatory authority. The investigation determined that two bags of uncounted absentee ballots likely never made it to the wards where they should have been counted. Dane County canvassers discovered 68 uncounted absentee ballots in a tabulator bin on Nov. 12, a week after the election, and another 125 uncounted ballots in a courier bag the first week of December. The clerk's office did not notify the Wisconsin Elections Commission of the oversight until Dec. 18, almost a month and a half after the election and well after results were certified on Nov. 29. Witzel-Behl told investigators she wasn't aware of any uncounted votes until the week of Dec. 10, even though she apparently sent an email to her staff on Nov. 27 to keep the ballots sealed and record the voters as having participated. Four voters whose ballots weren't counted have filed claims for $175,000 each, the first step toward a class-action lawsuit.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is a Republican who voted against state budget in one of Wisconsin's most flippable seats?
It's fair to say election season is never really over in Wisconsin. Democrats are already looking ahead to the fall 2026 elections, when they'll have more chances to pick up seats in the state Legislature, and perhaps flip control of the state Senate. The State Senate Democratic Committee is already eyeing one competitive seat, held by Republican state Sen. Rob Hutton of Brookfield.'Senator Hutton is in the most flippable Senate seat in Wisconsin,' the SSDC, which works to get Democrats elected to the chamber, posted on X on June 27, 2025. This is all in the context of the state's two-year budget and speculation at the time that Hutton might vote against it. Hutton ultimately voted 'no' on the budget, joining three Republicans and 10 Democrats in the Senate who rejected the full plan because it either spent too much or didn't invest enough in areas like K-12 education. In a statement after his vote, Hutton said the budget would create a deficit, 'putting Wisconsin families in a worse spot for the future.' 'In a time of economic uncertainty, when our spending decisions warrant further restraint and discernment, we need a budget that creates proper spending priorities and puts taxpayers first,' Hutton said. Wisconsin voters are likely to hear lots about toss-up legislative seats and how incumbents voted on policies in the budget. Let's determine whether Hutton's district, which includes communities west of Milwaukee like Brookfield, Wauwatosa, Pewaukee and West Allis, is truly the most competitive. We contacted the SSDC, which said it ran the math based on voting results from the 2024 presidential and Senate elections. Democrats see two other seats as competitive, those held by Sen. Howard Marklein of Spring Green and Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine. Both Republicans voted for the budget. The question for us is whether Hutton's seat is more competitive than the other two. Based on the committee's math, former Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin carried Hutton's district by a higher percentage than they carried the other two districts. In Hutton's district, about 6,500 more voters cast ballots for Harris than President Donald Trump, compared to around 1,000 in the two other districts. And around 5,400 more voters in Hutton's district voted for Baldwin over Republican candidate Eric Hovde, significantly more than in the other two competitive districts. The SSDC didn't provide a breakdown of the district's voting pattern in the state Supreme Court race, but said liberal Justice Susan Crawford's performance in Hutton's district added to its conclusion. John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University, did a similar analysis. His findings confirmed that Harris and Baldwin performed better in Hutton's district than in three other battleground districts. Meanwhile, Johnson found Crawford carried Hutton's district by double digits – Crawford actually had a higher margin in Marklein's district. We're getting way into the details, but all this supports Democrats' claim that Hutton's district is at least one of the two most flippable in Wisconsin. Of course, races for the state Legislature are different than those for president, Senate and state Supreme Court. We can't look at how much Hutton won by in 2024 in his new seat, because he wasn't on the ballot last year. In 2022, when his district lines were different, he won by about seven percentage points. Democratic candidate Sarah Harrison is running against Hutton this time around. She ran for state Assembly in 2024, losing to Republican Rep. Adam Neylon from Pewaukee by about 18 points. PolitiFact Wisconsin asked Hutton for further comment but didn't hear back. The State Senate Democratic Committee said Hutton 'is in the most flippable Senate seat in Wisconsin.' Hutton was one of 53 lawmakers, including Republicans and Democrats, who voted against the state budget. Calculations from the SSDC and an independent researcher confirm Harris and Baldwin carried Hutton's district by a higher percentage than two other competitive districts held by Republicans. And while Crawford performed slightly better in one of those other battlegrounds, she still carried Hutton's district by a significant margin. None of this confirms Hutton's seat will turn blue next year, but it is likely the Senate's most competitive seat. We rate the claim True. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, After an intense election season, the political focus shifts to state races in Wisconsin, Nov. 11, 2024. X, Wisconsin Senate Democrats, June 27, 2025. MacIver Institute, Budget Delay Is an Opportunity for Reform, Sen. Rob Hutton, June 27, 2025. Wisconsin State Legislature, 2025 Senate Vote 81, July 2, 2025. Wisconsin State Senator Rob Hutton, Statement on Budget, July 2, 2025. Wisconsin State Legislature, Senate District 5. Email exchange, Will Karcz, State Senate Democratic Committee communications director, July 1, 2025. Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog, John Johnson, What the Supreme Court Election tells us about Wisconsin's Legislative Districts, June 4, 2025. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2022 Wisconsin State Senate - District 5 Election Results. WisPolitics, Harrison campaign: Announces bid for Wisconsin State Senate district 5, June 13, 2025. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2024 Wisconsin General Elections Results - State Assembly District 15. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Legislature passes and Evers signs budget after sprint to get ahead of Trump big bill, July 3, 2025. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Does GOP state budget holdout have most competitive seat in Wisconsin?
CBS News
11-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Wisconsin lawsuit seeks to ban Elon Musk from ever offering $1 million checks to voters again
A government watchdog group in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to prohibit billionaire Elon Musk from ever again offering cash payments to voters in the battleground state like he did in this spring's hotly contested Supreme Court race. Musk handed out $1 million checks to three Wisconsin voters, including two in person just days before the state's April 1 Supreme Court election, in an effort to help elect conservative candidate Brad Schimel. Two weeks before the election, Musk's political action committee, America PAC, offered $100 to voters who signed a petition in opposition to "activist judges," or referred someone to sign it. It was all part of more than $20 million that Musk and groups he support spent on the race in an effort to flip majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. More than $100 million was spent by both sides, making it the most expensive court race in U.S. history. Musk's preferred candidate lost to Democratic-backed Susan Crawford by 10 percentage points. Her victory cemented the 4-3 liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court until at least 2028. Since that election, Musk announced he will spend less on political campaigns and then feuded publicly with President Donald Trump after exiting his administration. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign says that Musk's actions create "the risk that Wisconsin elections will become an open auction, where votes go to the preferred candidates of the highest bidders and the election outcome is determined by which candidate has a patron willing and able to pay the highest sum to Wisconsin voters." The lawsuit says that Musk and two groups he funds violated prohibitions on vote bribery and unauthorized lotteries and says his actions were an unlawful conspiracy and public nuisance. The lawsuit asks the court to order that Musk never offer similar payments to voters again. A spokesperson for Musk's America PAC did not immediately return a text message Wednesday seeking comment. There is another Wisconsin Supreme Court election in April. In November 2026, control of the Legislature and the governor's office, as well as the state's eight congressional districts, will be decided. The latest lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and a pair of voters by the liberal Wisconsin-based Law Forward and the Washington-based Democracy Defenders Fund. It was filed against Musk, his group America PAC that announced the petition and the Musk-funded group United States of America Inc. that made the payments. The court that Crawford joins in August could ultimately hear the new lawsuit. Crawford would almost certainly be asked to recuse from the case, and if she did, the court would be left with a 3-3 split between conservative and liberal justices. The current court, also controlled 4-3 by liberals, declined to hear a similar hastily filed lawsuit brought by Wisconsin's Democratic attorney general seeking to block Musk's handing out of two $1 million checks to voters two days before the election. Two lower courts rejected that lawsuit before the Supreme Court declined to hear it on procedural grounds. Musk's attorneys argued in that case that Musk was exercising his free speech rights with the giveaways and any attempt to restrict that would violate both the Wisconsin and U.S. constitutions. Musk's political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the presidential election last year, offering to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second amendments. A judge in Pennsylvania said prosecutors failed to show the effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue through Election Day. A federal lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania in April alleges that Musk and his political action committee failed to pay more than $20,000 for getting people to sign that petition in 2024. America PAC on Monday filed a motion to dismiss. That case is pending.
