(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s elections managers are walking away from their investigation into nearly 200 uncounted absentee ballots in Madison.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission closed its investigation into former Madison City Clerk Marybeth Witzel-Behl, and the 193 ballots she didn’t count in November, without asking for any criminal charges.
“This is not a criminal investigation,” Election Commission chairwoman Ann Jacobs said. “The focus of this investigation has been discovering what happened, and making sure it doesn’t ever happen again.”
Jacobs, and Republican Commissioner Don Millis, found that Witzel-Behl broke the law by ignoring the missing ballots once they were found, and then doing nothing to count the ballots in the weeks and months after.
“The lack of curiosity. The testimony that, you know, ‘Oh there might have been ballots there, but I didn’t ask for a full month,’ was not plausible. Or if that was the truth, it was a rather shocking dereliction of just ordinary responsibility,” Jacobs said. “Nobody likes admitting mistakes are made, and we recognize that that’s a very human thing. But in this case nobody took responsibility for these ballots.”
Instead of recommending criminal charges, Jacobs and the Election Commission are recommending a series of new requirements for Madison’s elections office.
Madison city attorney and interim clerk Michael Haas said while the city doesn’t dispute the findings of the WEC investigation, he’s not sure the new requirements are “appropriate, feasible, or legal.”
“In addition, the proposed orders are framed as directing that those specific policies continue permanently into the future, regardless of any other developments such as changes in the law, technology, or improved best practices,” Hass added. “The recommended orders also do not take into account the steps that have already been taken by the city.”
WEC commissioners voted to give Haas an extra three weeks to review the orders and offer feedback. The Commission is expected to finalize its recommendations at its Aug. 15 meeting.
