'Very disturbing': Investigation underway into Madison's missing absentee ballots

 

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The bipartisan state elections commission has launched an investigation into the nearly 200 uncounted absentee ballots discovered in Madison more than a month after Election Day.

In a unanimous vote, the Wisconsin Elections Commission authorized the investigation to find out how 193 absentee ballots went unaccounted for during the November election and why city officials took weeks to notify the error.

Last week, the City of Madison Clerk's Office alerted the public of the missing ballots, which prompted a series of concerns from officials.

"I thought this was so egregious that it's important we move immediately," said Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the elections commission, during Thursday's meeting.

The investigation centers around mistakes at two Madison polling locations, Ward 56 and 65, where a total of 193 absentee ballots were never processed.

The uncounted ballots, which were not enough to affect the outcomes in any race or referendum, were found in three sealed courier bags days following the election.

"The City of Madison explained they had realized that two of their wards had absentee ballots that were not processed on Election Day," said Angela O'Brien, a staff attorney at WEC. "This meant that the total ballots issued did not match their voter participation number, meaning they had more ballots as received than ballots counted."

According to a Dec. 20 memo by the Madison City Clerk's Office, the first batch of ballots was discovered on Nov. 12 with 68 unprocessed absentee ballots. Three weeks later, another sealed courier bag with 125 ballots was found on Dec. 3.

WEC was notified of the errors on Dec. 18, weeks after the commission certified the Nov. 5 results.

Last week, the public was made aware after Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl sent out a news release, in addition to a statement by Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway.

During discussion on whether to launch an investigation, commissioners expressed frustration about what took the clerk's office so long to alert WEC of the mistake.

"My biggest concern is why it took a month and a half for this to come out," said Don Millis, a Republican commissioner. "It's very, very disturbing."

Some commissioners suggested providing additional guidance to clerks once the investigation is complete to prevent future mistakes from happening again.

"I don't look at this as blaming anyone. I'm looking at this from the perspective of, how do we make sure this doesn't happen again and how do we make sure all the polling places in the state are following procedures," said Marge Bosselman, a Republican commissioner.

The investigation could take several weeks as election officials prepare for the upcoming Feb. 18 primary election.

Commissioner Bob Spindell, a Republican, attempted to expand the scope of the investigation to include the City of Milwaukee after officials recounted 31,000 absentee ballots on election night at Central Count.

Jacobs and other commissioners dismissed Spindell's motion and argued if someone wants to file a complaint to look further into the matter, the commission will consider it.

The "human error" occurred after an election observer noticed the doors on a tabulator machine were not locked and sealed when they should have been.

After ballots were recounted, final tallies came in around 4 a.m. Officials said neither the tabulators nor the ballots were compromised in the process.