MADISON, Wis. (AP) 鈥� Wisconsin election officials voted Friday to force Madison city workers to sit for depositions as they try to learn more about how nearly 200 absentee ballots in November's election .
The uncounted ballots in the state鈥檚 capital city didn't affect any results, but the Wisconsin Elections Commission still launched an investigation in January to determine whether Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl violated state law or abused her discretion. She didn't notify the elections commission of the uncounted ballots until December, almost a month and a half after the election and well after the results were certified on Nov. 29.
Commissioners astounded at failure to count ballots
The commission hasn't made a decision yet on whether Witzel-Behl acted illegally or improperly, but commissioners appeared flabbergasted at the failure to count the ballots as they reviewed the investigation during a meeting Friday. Chair Ann Jacobs was particularly incensed with Witzel-Behl for not launching her own in-depth probe immediately.
鈥淭his feels like a complete lack of leadership and a refusal to be where the buck stops,鈥� Jacobs said. 鈥淵ou don't get to put your head in the sand for weeks. ... I am genuinely shocked by this timeline."
Don Millis said it was a 鈥渢ravesty鈥� that the ballots were never counted. 鈥淵ou're telling the world that these 193 people didn't vote in what many thought was the most consequential election of our lifetime,鈥� he said.
What did the commission decide to do?
The commission voted unanimously to authorize Jacobs and Millis to question Madison city employees in depositions 鈥� question-and-answer periods usually led by attorneys in which the subject gives sworn testimony. Jacobs said she would confer with Millis about who to question but Witzel-Behl will likely be one of the subjects.
Madison city attorney Mike Haas, who was in the audience, told The Associated Press outside the meeting that he would not fight the depositions. 鈥淭he city wants to get to the bottom of this as much as anyone else,鈥� he said.
The commission also voted unanimously to send a message to clerks around the state informing them of the problems in Madison and warning them to scour polling places for any uncounted ballots during the . Jacobs said she plans to call for more substantial changes to state election policy going into the 2026 elections after commissioners learn more about what happened in Madison.
The investigation's findings so far
The city clerk鈥檚 office discovered 67 unprocessed absentee ballots in a courier bag that had been placed in a security cart on Nov. 12, the day election results were canvassed.
Witzel-Behl said she told two employees to notify the elections commission, but neither did. A third employee visited the Dane County Clerk鈥檚 Office in person to inform officials there of the discovery. That employee said he didn鈥檛 remember what the Dane County clerk said, but he recalled a 鈥済eneral sense鈥� that the county would not want the ballots for the canvass.
The Dane County clerk, Scott McDonell, told the commission that he knew nothing of the uncounted ballots until they were reported in the media.
The clerk鈥檚 office discovered another 125 uncounted absentee ballots in a sealed courier bag in a supply tote on Dec. 2. Witzel-Behl said she didn鈥檛 inform county canvassers because the canvass was finished and, based on the county鈥檚 response to Nov. 12 discovery, she didn鈥檛 think the county would be interested.
The elections commission wasn't notified of either discovery until Dec. 18. Witzel-Behl said the employees she asked to notify the commission waited until reconciliation was completed. Reconciliation is a routine process in which poll workers and elections officials ensure an election's accuracy, including checking the number of ballots issued at the polls to the number of voters.
Holes in protocols
The investigators noted that Madison polling places鈥� absentee ballot logs didn鈥檛 list the number of courier bags for each ward, which would have told election inspectors how many bags to account for while processing ballots.
City election officials also had no procedures for confirming the number of absentee ballots received with the number counted. Witzel-Behl said that information was emailed to election inspectors the weekend before the election, but no documents provided the total number of ballots received.
If Witzel-Behl had looked through everything to check for courier bags and absentee ballot envelopes before the election was certified the missing ballots could have been counted, investigators said.
Witzel-Behl also couldn鈥檛 explain why she didn鈥檛 contact the county or the state elections commission herself, investigators said.
Voters prep for lawsuit
Four Madison voters whose ballots weren鈥檛 counted Thursday for $175,000 each from the city and Dane County, the first step toward initiating a lawsuit.
Todd Richmond, The Associated Press
