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Former Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl violated multiple state laws when her office failed to count nearly 200 absentee ballots in the 2024 presidential election, according to a draft report released Wednesday by the Wisconsin Elections Commission. 

The commission cited a lack of leadership in the clerk’s office, referring both to Witzel-Behl and the deputy clerk who assumed control during her vacation shortly after the election.

Witzel-Behl, who was put on leave by the city after the error and then resigned, broke state law by failing to supervise absentee ballot handling, neglecting post-election processes, and by not training poll workers to check the bags used to transport ballots, the commission concluded.

“There is no evidence that the City Clerk took any steps to investigate the uncounted ballots once they were brought to her attention,” the commission wrote. “The evidence demonstrates that the City Clerk began her vacation on November 13 and then had little to do with the supervision of her office until almost a month later.”

The draft report follows a months-long investigation into the 193 ballots that went missing on Election Day. The ballots were found over the next several weeks — some of them before final certification of results — but were never counted. Commission Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, jointly led the investigation alongside Republican commissioner and former Chair Don Millis.

For months, Madison election officials have been saying that the ballots that went uncounted were delivered to two polling sites but weren’t unopened. But the commission found no evidence the ballot bags were ever delivered. A chief inspector at one site testified he was confident there was no unopened bag in the supply cart sent to his ward.

The errors have already prompted significant changes in Madison’s election processes. Officials have overhauled ballot tracking procedures, which Madison and Dane County leaders say should prevent a repeat of the 2024 mistake.

Still, the commission emphasized “it is essential that the public understands what has occurred, so that municipalities throughout the state can review their own processes and make certain that they too do not find themselves in this very unfortunate situation.”

The commission’s sharp criticism extended beyond Witzel-Behl, noting that “the staff of the City Clerk’s office failed to take any action regarding those ballots.”

Deputy Clerk Jim Verbick said that his post-election involvement was “minimal” and that he didn’t think it was his job to do anything about the missing ballots, the commission’s findings state.

“However, he did not attempt to speak to the City Clerk about the matter,” the review continues. “There was nobody who took responsibility for these ballots. It was always someone else’s job.”

Madison Interim Clerk Mike Haas said in a statement that the city is reviewing WEC’s report and that he hopes that it can provide lessons that prevent similar errors in the future. He did not respond to a request for further comment.

Former clerk violated laws, gave contradictory statements

The report focused on lapses in training by the clerk’s office. For example, it said, Witzel-Behl stored absentee ballots in green courier bags, but didn’t mention that in poll worker training, and the bags weren’t labeled as carrying absentee ballots. She also failed to train poll workers that absentee ballots could also be stored in red security carts, which the commission said contributed to the ballots going uncounted. That lack of training broke state law, the commission stated.

The commission also found that Witzel-Behl violated a law requiring her to supervise absentee ballot handling. In her deposition, she “could not answer basic questions about absentee ballot handling procedures in her office.”

The commission’s report highlights contradictions between Witzel-Behl’s actions in office and deposition testimony. Although she claimed not to know about the uncounted ballots until December, the commission said she messaged an election worker in late November with instructions on how to handle the first batch of uncounted ballots.

Upon learning of the missing ballots in November, the commission said, Witzel-Behl should have alerted the city attorney, the County Board of Canvassers and the commission and immediately investigated her office’s procedures — but she didn’t.

The commission also alleged she violated laws by printing pollbooks too early, failing to oversee poll workers and inadequately preparing for the city’s review of election results.

Draft findings include several orders for Madison compliance

The report lists draft recommendations that the commissioners will vote on at their July 17 meeting. These include requiring the Madison Clerk’s Office to create a plan detailing which employee oversees which task; printing pollbooks no earlier than the Thursday before each election; clearly labeling and tracking the bags carrying absentee ballots; checking all ballot bags and drop boxes before the city finalizes election results; and explaining how it’s going to comply with each of the orders.

Witzel-Behl’s office printed pollbooks for the two affected wards on Oct. 23 — nearly two weeks before Election Day — despite state guidance to print them as close to the election as possible.

Had they been printed later, absentee voters whose ballots had already been returned would have been marked automatically, alerting poll workers that those ballots were in hand but not yet counted. 

But printing pollbooks no earlier than the Thursday before an election could be challenging, said Claire Woodall, who was formerly Milwaukee’s top election official. Cities like Madison and Milwaukee must print tens of thousands of pollbook pages, often using private printers, and distribute them to chief inspectors.

“It seems like you’re rushing a process” with the Thursday requirement, Woodall said. “The last thing you want is for voters to show up at 7 a.m. and discover you don’t have the correct pollbook.”

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

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.

Wisconsin Elections Commission alleges former Madison clerk broke laws is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

An absentee ballot drop box used by the city of Madison. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

The Wisconsin Elections Commission found that the city of Madison failing to count nearly 200 absentee ballots cast in last year’s November election was the result of a “confluence of errors” and a “complete lack of leadership” in the city clerk’s office, according to a draft report of WEC’s investigation into the incident. 

The Madison city clerk’s office told the elections commission in a memo Dec. 20 about the lost ballots from two Madison wards. A bag containing 68 unprocessed absentee ballots from two wards was found Nov. 12 in a tabulator bin, the memo stated. During reconciliation of ballots on Dec. 3, clerk employees found two sealed envelopes containing a total of 125 unprocessed absentee ballots from another ward. The discovery of the missing ballots was announced to the public Dec. 26. 

The missing ballots were not enough to change the result of any local, state or federal elections.

WEC’s investigation into the matter was led by the commission’s chair, Ann Jacobs, a Democratic appointee, and Don Millis, the commission’s most recent Republican-appointed chair. The investigation took six months and involved 13 depositions and the review of more than 2,000 documents. 

The report on the investigation, which goes to the full commission for approval in a meeting next week, found five counts in which the city’s clerk, Maribeth Witzel-Behl, acted “contrary to” state election law. 

Witzel-Behl resigned from her position in April after nearly 20 years as city clerk. 

The investigation found that the city exposed itself to mistakes by printing the pollbooks for polling places — the log in which election staff records when a voter’s ballot has been received and counted — three weeks before Election Day. That time frame meant that by the time polls opened on Nov. 5, the record in the book of which voters had already returned their absentee ballot was out of date. 

Additionally, the city “failed to track absentee envelopes and bags” meaning that large manila envelopes and courier bags full of absentee ballots weren’t numbered and organized by ward. 

“This meant that the polling places would not know how many Courier Bags or Carrier Envelopes to expect and with what seal numbers,” the report states. “Had they been given those numbers, they would have been able to immediately know if they were short a bag or an envelope and could have immediately looked for the missing item.”

According to the report, the most likely explanation for the ballots not being counted at the polling places on Election Day is that they were never delivered to the polls. 

Much of the report is a blistering criticism of Witzel-Behl’s leadership and response to the missing ballots, particularly her decision to leave on vacation on Nov. 13 — while the city was still working through the ballot reconciliation process. 

“The lack of action by the City Clerk with regard to the found ballots is astonishing,” the report states. “She demonstrated no urgency, let alone interest, in including those votes in the election tally. At the time the Ward 65 ballots were found, the county canvass was continuing, and those ballots could have easily been counted. That would have required the City Clerk to take the urgent action that the situation demanded.” 

“Instead, she went on vacation and, per her testimony, never inquired about them again until mid-December,” the report continues. “There was nobody who took responsibility for these ballots. It was always someone else’s job. Rather than acknowledge these significant errors, the City Clerk and her staff either ignored the issue or willfully refused to inform the necessary parties and seek assistance. These actions resulted in nearly 200 lawful voters’ votes going uncounted – an unconscionable result.  This profound failure undermines public confidence in elections.”

The report found that Witzel-Behl potentially violated state law by abusing her discretion to run Madison’s elections, printing the pollbooks too early, failing to maintain records on the handling of absentee ballots, failing to properly oversee the staff responsible for counting the absentee ballots and failing to inform the city’s board of canvassers about the missing ballots. 

“It was the job of the City Clerk to immediately take action once notified about the found ballots, and she did nothing,” the report states. “It was the responsibility of the Deputy Clerk to take action in her absence, and he did nothing.  These ballots were treated as unimportant and a reconciliation nuisance, rather than as the essential part of our democracy they represent.”

If the report is approved by WEC, it will require Madison to certify it has taken a number of actions to correct the problems from November. Those requirements include developing an internal plan delineating which employee is responsible for statutorily required tasks, printing poll books no earlier than the Thursday before elections, changing the absentee ballot processing system so bags and envelopes aren’t lost, updating instructional materials for poll workers and completing a full inspection of all materials before the scheduled board of canvassers meeting after an election. 

WEC is scheduled to vote on the report’s findings at its July 17 meeting.

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Don Millis and Ann Jacob, the former and current chairs of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, testify Tuesday, Feb. 4, at an Assembly hearing on a commission rule for election observers. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Monday published a new permanent administrative rule to guide how election observers are allowed to conduct themselves at polling places. 

On Friday, the commission voted 5-1 to approve the rule after more than two years of work that involved the participation of a 24-person advisory committee made up of municipal clerks, poll workers, political parties and outside groups including advocates for people with disabilities and right-wing election conspiracy outfits. 

The final rule order specifies who is allowed to observe elections and defines the boundaries of what observers are allowed to do at a polling place. The rule also dictates when poll workers are allowed to call law enforcement to diffuse a situation and includes provisions to require that observers be allowed to use available chairs and restrooms and for how the news media is allowed to operate inside polling places. The rules are different for members of the media, who are allowed to take videos and photos inside polling places while observers are not.

WEC commissioners of both parties advocated for the passage of the rule, arguing that while not perfect, the compromise reached to create the rule was better than the vague interpretation of state law that had previously governed observers. 

But even after their involvement on the advisory committee, election skeptics opposed the rule’s enactment. WEC commissioner Robert Spindell, a Republican who has often flirted with election conspiracy theories, was the lone vote against the rule going into effect. 

Republican lawmakers on the Legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) had denied the passage of an emergency rule instituting similar provisions earlier this year. JCRAR deadlocked on a vote to deny the permanent rule’s enactment in April, allowing it to move out of the committee and back to WEC for final approval. 

“Today marks a significant milestone that will ensure election observers, election officials, and voters all have a clear and consistent understanding of the observer process,” WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe said in a statement. “After years of thorough public hearings, advisory committee input, and careful drafting, this rule enshrines standards for election observers that ensure participation in our electoral process.”

The commission will hold a meeting later this year to approve new guidance for election clerks administering the rule, according to a news release. The rule is set to go into effect Aug. 1.

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The U.S. Justice Department has sent letters to election officials in at least two key swing states, threatening action against the states if they don’t comply with provisions of a 2002 federal election law.

Lawyers from the department’s civil rights division sent letters in recent weeks to both Arizona and Wisconsin. The Arizona letter said that state officials are not properly verifying voters’ identities as dictated by the Help America Vote Act, and it warned of a lawsuit. The Wisconsin letter said the Wisconsin Elections Commission is not properly resolving administrative complaints as required by the same law and threatened to withhold federal election funds over that issue.

The Justice Department recently sued North Carolina also, claiming that the state has not been properly verifying voter identity.

The department issued a press release and publicly released the Wisconsin letter, dated June 4; Votebeat obtained the previously unreported Arizona letter, dated May 20, through a records request.

The letters are an early sign of how President Donald Trump’s administration is scrutinizing state election practices after his March executive order on elections, which called for stricter citizenship checks and revised voting machine standards, among other things. The Justice Department has also dropped or withdrawn from several voting rights cases dating from before Trump took office again in January.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, responded in a June 2 letter to the Justice Department that state election officials conduct a complete residency and citizenship check and fully comply with the Help America Vote Act when someone registers to vote. 

“Arizona has a long history of adherence to voter registration requirements, both state and federal,” Fontes wrote.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission declined to immediately comment on the letter that it received, which noted that the commission has declined to adjudicate administrative complaints against itself since at least 2022, due in part to a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision.

The letter said the commission’s actions “justify a bar” on future grants to the state from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. 

The DOJ appears to be raising a “legitimate” violation in that case, David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and a former attorney in the voting section of the Justice Department, said after reviewing the letter. But he characterized it as minor and stressed that the agency has limited resources to devote to enforcing voting laws.

The DOJ didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the letters.

How Wisconsin Elections Commission handles conflict of interest

Under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), any state receiving money for elections must also establish an administrative process allowing people to file complaints about alleged violations of the law. If the state determines there’s a HAVA violation, it must provide an appropriate remedy, the law says; if not, it can dismiss the complaint.

But in recent years, the WEC has been summarily dismissing HAVA complaints that are about the agency’s own actions. 

In rejecting those complaints, the commission cited a 2022 Wisconsin Supreme Court opinion in which Justice Rebecca Bradley, a conservative, said it would be “nonsensical” for the Wisconsin Elections Commission to adjudicate a complaint against itself. Bradley was joined in her opinion by two other justices, and a fourth justice echoed her in a separate opinion in the case.

Becker said that WEC practice probably doesn’t comply with the federal law, which supersedes state laws, especially for federal elections.

While the election commission said it would be a conflict of interest to adjudicate complaints against itself, Becker said other agencies “do investigations of themselves all the time.”

Because of the WEC’s position, complainants are left “without any recourse,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote in the letter. The commission’s actions jeopardize future federal funding, she wrote.

But in at least some cases, the agency has told complainants they can appeal a WEC ruling in court, Rob Yablon, a law professor at UW-Madison, pointed out. Yablon also said it’s unclear whether WEC’s position that it can’t resolve the complaints could itself count as a determination that meets the requirements in HAVA. 

Right now, Wisconsin doesn’t stand to lose much in federal funding over the issue. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission allocated about $272,000 in election security grants to Wisconsin in the 2025 fiscal year, money that has yet to come in, according to WEC Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat.

“The commission would have to decide to take it. We would have to know the conditions of receiving it,” Jacobs said, adding that she questioned “whether or not the work that would be involved in (administering the grants) would justify the receipt of the money when … it would amount to $147.03 per clerk.”

It would take a majority vote of the commissioners for the WEC to begin adjudicating claims against itself, Jacobs said, but she wouldn’t be in favor of it.

“I think our legal analysis is correct: It’s improper for us to be the adjudicating body on whether or not we did something wrong,” she said. “I think that we can have both statutes, both federal and state law, harmoniously work together. And I think that is, in fact, what’s going on.”

WEC member Don Millis, a Republican, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Following the DOJ letter, Republicans in charge of the state’s budget committee delayed a planned session to finalize the election commission’s budget, saying they had to review the Justice Department’s allegations first.

Arizona’s ID number checks are at issue

In both the North Carolina lawsuit and the Arizona letter, the DOJ asserted that the states have failed to require applicants’ driver’s license numbers when they register to vote.

North Carolina has since fixed its form to require this information, but it hasn’t contacted every voter who registered through the faulty registration form to provide the missing information. The issue of missing identification numbers was central to the recent challenge to results of the state’s Supreme Court race.

In the letter to Arizona’s secretary of state, Maureen Riordan, senior counsel and acting chief of the voting section of the civil rights division, wrote that HAVA requires the state to request the applicant’s driver’s license number if the applicant has one. If not, a Social Security number is acceptable, she wrote.

The DOJ claims Arizona improperly allows registrants to use either ID number, regardless of whether the applicant has a driver’s license.

The division asked the state to revise the form and retroactively check all applicants who provided only a Social Security number “to identify any non-citizens.”

Fontes in his response explained that since 2005, Arizona has required voters who register to vote in state and local elections to provide evidence of citizenship and has designed its form to meet that requirement as well as HAVA requirements.

When someone applies, an election official completes what the state calls a “HAVA check” using the state’s driver’s license database to check the driver’s license data, as well as to confirm citizenship, he said. 

“Our system and processes ensure that if those individuals have MVD credentials, the number of such credential is included in their voter record,” he wrote.

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

Jen Fifield is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Fifield at jfifield@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat’s free national newsletter here.

US warns Wisconsin and Arizona over compliance with federal election law is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Committee Co-Chairs Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) and Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that they were looking forward to getting to work on the budget despite negotiations stalling and were optimistic that they could still get the budget done on time. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Thursday took its first actions on the budget since the breakdown in negotiations between Republican lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers by approving over $700 million in bonding authority for clean water and safe drinking water projects and taking action on several other agencies.

Committee Co-Chairs Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) and Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that they were looking forward to getting to work on the budget despite negotiations stalling and were optimistic that they could still get the budget done on time. 

“We’ve had some good conversations in the last few weeks between the governor and the legislative leaders, and unfortunately, those, you know, conversations have stopped,” Born said.

Lawmakers and Evers announced Wednesday evening that their months-long negotiations had reached an impasse for the time being. 

Republicans said they would move forward writing the budget on their own, saying the state couldn’t afford what Evers wanted, and Evers said Republicans were walking away because they refused to compromise. Evers had said he was willing to support Republican tax cut proposals that even as they were similar to proposals he previously vetoed.

“The spending really that the governor needs is just more than they can afford,” Born said Thursday, “and it’s getting to the point where it’s about 3 to 1 compared to the tax cuts that we were looking at.”

He declined to share specifics about the amounts that were being discussed.

“I don’t think we’re going to relive the conversations of the last few weeks in any details, but certainly, you know, we’ve been focused on tax cuts for retirees and the middle class,” Born said. 

Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in an email that Republicans’ “math is not remotely accurate.”

Despite the breakdown in discussions, the GOP lawmakers said they were optimistic about the potential for Evers to sign the budget they write, noting that he has signed budget bills passed by Republicans three times in his tenure as governor.

“I’m very hopeful that we will do a responsible budget that we can afford that addresses the major priorities and a lot of the priorities that I think the governor’s office has,” Marklein said. “I’m very hopeful that the governor will sign the budget.” 

Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee were less optimistic about the prospect for the budget to receive support from across the aisle, saying that it likely wouldn’t adequately address the issues at the top of mind for Wisconsinites, including public K-12 education, public universities and child care.

“We’re going to see a budget that prioritizes more tax breaks for the wealthiest among us at the expense of all of the rest of us and a budget from finance that will get no Democratic votes and that will likely be vetoed by the governor,” Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said. 

Roys said they didn’t know about the specifics of what Evers had agreed to. 

“We can’t really speculate on that, but I can say that we absolutely support the process and the idea of collaborative, shared government,” Roys said. “We are committed to that. We have been ready from Day One to sit down with our Republic colleagues to negotiate.” 

She said for now JFC Democrats will focus on providing alternatives to Republicans’ plans.

“We’re going to do our best to advocate for what Wisconsinites have said they want to need,” Roys said. “We want a lower cost for families. We want to make sure that our kids are the first priority in the budget, and we’re going to be offering the Republicans the opportunity to vote in favor of those things.” 

There is less than a month until the June 30 deadline for the Legislature to pass and Evers to sign the state budget. If the budget isn’t passed on time, then state agencies continue to operate under the current funding levels. 

Committee approves bonding authority for clean water fund

While negotiations have hit a wall, some committee’s actions on Thursday received bipartisan support. 

The committee unanimously approved an additional $732 million in bonding authority for the Environmental Improvement Fund (EIF). The program uses a combination of federal grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s clean water and drinking water state revolving funds and matching state funds to provide subsidized loans to municipalities for drinking water, wastewater and storm water infrastructure projects. 

“This is going to be very good for a lot of our local communities when it comes to clean water,” Marklein said ahead of the meeting. He noted that many communities were on a waiting list for their projects.

The Department of Administration and the Department of Natural Resources told lawmakers in late 2024 that that year was the first time the fund had not had enough resources to meet demand.

Demand for aid from the program increased dramatically starting in 2023, with a 154% increase in the clean water fund loan demand in 2023-24 and a 325% increase in demand for the safe drinking water loan program that year. Insufficient funding for the clean water program led to constraints in 2024-25 and left needs unmet for at least 24 projects costing around $73.9 million.

Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) said she was thrilled that lawmakers were approving money for infrastructure in the state.

“The state has over $4 billion here,” Andraca said. “A lot of that is one-time money and one-time money should be used for infrastructure — making sure that our communities are in a great position moving forward should the economy turn down.”

The action is meant to cover the next four years of state contributions to the fund.

Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) said in a statement the loans will help Wisconsin communities address aging infrastructure and water contaminants.

“With these additional funds, municipalities will be able to access low-interest loans to modernize their water systems, saving local taxpayers millions of dollars and keeping their water clean for years to come at the same time,” Wimberger said. 

Peter Burress, government affairs manager for environmental nonprofit Wisconsin Conservation Voters, said including the additional revenue bonding authority in the budget is a “smart, substantive way” to make progress towards ensuring Wisconsinites have “equitable access to safe, affordable drinking water.” 

“We urge every legislator to support this same investment and send it to Gov. Evers for his signature,” Burress said. 

Actions on other agencies get mixed or party-line support

Republicans on the committee approved an additional $500,000 for the Medical College of Wisconsin’s North Side Milwaukee Health Centers Family Medicine Residency Program, which focuses on training family physicians with expertise and skills to provide individualized, evidence-based, culturally competent care to patients and families. 

The measure also included  $250,000 annually starting in 2026-27 for the Northwest Wisconsin Residency Rotation for family medicine residents. According to budget papers, starting the funding in the second year of the budget would allow time to find a hospital partner to support residents. 

Democrats voted against the measure after their proposal for higher funding was shot down by Republicans. The Democrats proposal also called for funding a  Comprehensive Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment Fellowship Program focusing on treating substance use disorders and anAdvancing Innovation in Residency Education project to improve the behavioral health expertise of family medicine residents.

“I hope that my colleagues are reading national news because we’re seeing lots and lots of research funding being cut,” Andraca said. “The Medical College has lost about $5 million in research grants recently, and in addition to other research programs being canceled, I don’t know who has tried to make an appointment with the primary care physician, but there’s really long wait times right now, and this program is literally designed to bring doctors into the state.” 

Democrats proposed transitioning the Educational Communications Board’s Emergency Weather Warning System from relying on fees for funding to being covered by state general purpose revenue. 

Andraca, in explaining the proposal, said state funding for a system like that is more important now than ever.

“We’re talking weather alerts. We’re talking about making sure that people know when there’s something heading their way. We are in a time where we need these alerts more than ever. In fact, yesterday was an unhealthy air day, and… we’re looking at drastic federal cuts,” Andraca said. 

Republicans rejected the measure and instead approved a 5% increase that will be used on general program operations, transmitter operations and emergency weather warning system operations. Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) joined Republicans in favor of the motion. 

The committee also took action on several other agencies with support splitting along party lines

Republicans approved a modification to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s budget, lowering it by $3.8 million, due to projections that surcharge collections appropriated to WEDC will be lower than estimated. They also rejected Democrats’ proposal to provide an additional $5 million in the opportunity attraction and promotion fund, which makes grants to  attract events that will draw national exposure and drive economic development.

WEC budget on pause after DOJ letter

The committee was scheduled to take action on the Wisconsin Elections Commission budget, but delayed that after the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the state agency accusing it of violating the Help America Vote Act. The letter threatened to withhold funding and criticized the absence of  an administrative complaint process or hearings to address complaints against the Commission itself. Ann Jacobs, the commission chair, has disputed the accusations and said there is no funding for the federal government to cut. 

Marklein said the state lawmakers want more information before acting on the agency’s budget.

“Out of caution, we think we’re just going to wait and see,” Marklein said. “We need to analyze this and see what implications there may be for the entire Elections Commission and what impact that may have on the budget.”

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A Republican-backed bill would make it easier to go to court to challenge the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s rulings on administrative complaints — a shift that could increase the number of election-related lawsuits.

The proposal, Assembly Bill 268, seeks to reverse a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that limited who has the right to appeal such rulings. If passed, it would allow more residents to bring election challenges into the court system, rather than leaving accountability solely in the hands of the commission. 

If the bill fails, supporters argue, holding election officials accountable for breaking the law would be difficult or even impossible.

As the law stands now, under the Supreme Court’s interpretation, “unless a person is personally, legally harmed by a WEC decision, the decision is unappealable,” Republican state Sen. Van Wanggaard, the bill author, said at an Assembly elections committee hearing Tuesday.

Complaints to the Wisconsin Elections Commission are frequent

State residents of all political affiliations regularly file complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which is the legally required first step for most election-related challenges, unless they are brought by district attorneys or the attorney general.

Liberals have filed complaints over concerns about towns that switched to hand-counting ballots and alleged inaccuracies on candidate nomination forms. Conservatives have filed complaints over allegedly being denied poll worker positions. Other complaints have involved allegations that clerks refused to accept ballots at polling places and unproven accusations of ballot tampering.

In one prominent case after the August 2022 election, then-Racine County Republican Chair Kenneth Brown filed an administrative complaint with the commission, accusing Racine of illegally using a mobile voting van for city residents to cast in-person absentee votes. Brown alleged, among other things, that the van was stationed around more Democratic areas of the city, illegally providing an unfair partisan advantage.

The commission rejected Brown’s complaint, finding no probable cause to suspect that the use of the van was illegal. Brown, represented by the conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, appealed. State law allows election officials or complainants “aggrieved” by a commission order to appeal it to circuit court.

Courts disagreed over whether Brown was qualified to sue under that standard. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority ultimately dismissed the case, ruling that Brown had not shown the commission’s decision made it harder for him to vote or harmed him personally.

“Because Brown was not injured by WEC’s decision,” liberal Justice Jill Karofsky wrote in the majority opinion, he “does not have standing to seek judicial review.”

Republicans panned the decision. Liberals were mostly happy with the outcome of the case, but some objected to the court’s legal reasoning on standing and complained that the justices should have addressed the underlying dispute in the case — that is, whether the use of the mobile voting van was legal.

Clerks, meanwhile, largely supported the justices’ interpretation of who has standing to challenge a commission ruling in court. They expressed concern about the Wanggaard bill, which would negate that ruling.

“This concept of legal standing exists because it prevents the courts from becoming overburdened with speculative, ideological or purely political lawsuits,” Green County Clerk Arianna Voegeli, a Democrat, said at the hearing. The bill, Voegeli said, opens the door to politically motivated complaints “aimed at harassing election officials or disrupting election administration.”

Proponents say bill would provide a check on the WEC

Assembly Bill 268 would explicitly allow any complainants to appeal any commission order that doesn’t give them what they’re asking for, “regardless of whether the complainant has suffered an injury to a legally recognized interest.”

Lucas Vebber, deputy counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which registered in favor of the bill, told Votebeat that in voting disputes, courts should decide cases on the underlying legal arguments, rather than focusing on who has the right to sue.

“It’s important that any government actor who’s making decisions (has) some kind of a mechanism in place to review those decisions in every case,” Vebber said.

“Both sides have filed these types of complaints,” he continued, “and I think all of them, regardless of political affiliation, should have their opportunity to have a day in court.”

Courts are already weighing in on an increasing number of voting disputes — including cases on drop boxes, whether voters can spoil their ballots and whether municipalities can forgo accessible voting machines for people with disabilities.

Rock County Clerk Lisa Tollefson said in a statement that the proposal could lead to more harassment and a “surge in litigation” against clerks since anybody in the state could file a complaint against the clerk, whether or not they were harmed, and then continue to pursue the case in court.

Wanggaard, the bill author, said it’s not his goal to put more pressure on clerks. Clerks weren’t getting flooded with cases before the Supreme Court restricted who could sue over commission complaints, he said.

Rep. Scott Krug, the Republican vice chair of the elections committee, said the bill’s language might be overly broad and suggested changes that would draw some limits on who could challenge a commission ruling in court.

For example, he said, lawmakers could clarify that only people who live in the jurisdiction where the alleged violation occurred could appeal a commission ruling.

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

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Clerks worry that Wisconsin bill would mean more election disputes end up in court is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.