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Who Found Madison's Missing Ballots?
Wisconsin’s election managers want to know who found Madison’s missing absentee ballots, who knew about them, and who finally decided to alert the public that some votes were not counted on Election Day.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission last week sent an open records request to Madison’s clerk’s office asking dozens of questions about the nearly 200 uncounted ballots that were found after Election Day.
“When did you discover that these ballots were not included in the tally? Who discovered that? How was it discovered?" the commission asked in one question. "How were the physical ballots discovered? Who discovered them? Where had they been prior to their discovery?"
The questions all look to lock the clerk’s office into both a timeline and a chain of custody of the ballots.
The Commission is also pressing for answers about Madison’s election policies, and whether anyone violated any rules for the city’s absentee ballots.
“Did you notify the City of Madison Municipal Board of Canvassers that the ballots had not been included in the tally? Did you notify the Dane County Board of Canvassers about these uncounted ballots? Did you notify the Dane County Clerk or his office about these uncounted ballots?” the Commission asked.
Elections Commission chairwoman Ann Jacobs was on UpFront over the weekend. She continued to say she wants to know the who, the what, and the why of the case so that the Elections Commission can try and prevent this from happening again.
She’s not saying if the WEC investigation will end with a punishment or any repercussions for Madison’s city clerk.
“Whether the commission chooses to do something more than just a directive to not do it again...that's going to be up to the commission. but I really think the emphasis from all of us is to really prevent it from happening again,” Jacobs said.
Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Bell told the Commission last week that her office “intends to cooperate with any inquiries or investigation by WEC staff.”
Jacobs said on Friday that Madison’s clerk has two weeks to answer the questions in the case.
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