Natalia Mittelstadt
Electoral problems appear in Wisconsin cities when Maribeth Witzel-Behl, a former Madison clerk, are examined after the election in November.
The two most populated cities in Wisconsin are examined on problems that took place in the last two elections. Both the capital of Madison and the largest city of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, have experienced election problems, from invalid voting cards to a shortage of voting cards on election day, because officials are trying to examine the appropriate causes.
Joke She gave up her positionwhich The mayor announced Last week, after she did not count 193 absent votes in the November election and did not inform the Wisconsin (WC) election committee until December 18. The election results were certified on November 29. 193 Voting cards were found In two parts, the first November 12 and the second on December 3.
. said the mayor The missing 193 voting cards would not have any election questions or voting questions, nor in Madison, nor in the whole condition.
In tiny Witzel-Behil resignation letter That she sent to the mayor of Madison on April 5, she wrote that “it was a pleasure to serve the city for 20 years”, and wished the mayor, the office of the city clerk and city of Madison “Nothing else”.
“On behalf of the inhabitants of the city of Madison, I want to expand my gratitude to Maribeth for her commitment and dedication in public service,” Madison Burmor Satya Rhodes-Conway he said in a statement last week. “Maribeth embodies the motto that she brought to the official’s office:” We exist to lend a hand. ” I wish her all the best in future projects. “Witzel-Behl was not accused of any offenses.
No matter to vote
Wec is currently investigating Witzel-Behl’s actions on invalid voices that took place after her office Dopulved absent voting cards were sent to over 2,200 voters in September. City officials claimed The fact that sending duplicate voting cards was a “human mistake” and told voters to destroy one of the voting cards and apply the other to vote. This concerned a total of 10 totems.
. Wec investigation It began in January, and Rhodes-Conway suspended Witzel-Behl in March, and then began an internal investigation. The findings of the inner probe have not yet been issued by the city, after The investigation has been suspended When Witzel-Behl gave up.
Last month, four Madison voters who were not counted to vote sophisticated claims For $ 175,000 from the city and the Ferrity, data in the first step towards fondant.
The election meeting turns into Donnybrook
Wec met on Thursday regarding the investigation into Witzel-Behl, but the meeting transformed into a screaming match when the Republican Commissioner tried to raise election issues in Milwaukee.
Commissioner GOP – said Bob Spindell that “an even more serious problem is the city of Milwaukee”, which took place during the election of April 1, when Seven electoral premises It ended with voting cards, causing delays. The April election included a race to the Supreme Court Wisconsin, which had a high turnout in elections outside of the year.
The chairwoman of the Wec, Ann Jacobs, Democrat, interrupted Spindell, ultimately threatening to throw him out of the meeting on business movement, which was not in the agenda. “Bob, stop! Stop! Stop!” Jacobs said When she hit the hammer, while Spindell continued, despite the protest. “I won’t let you continue, Bob. I will talk to you until you stop. You have to stop. You don’t have order and I will throw you out of this meeting if you don’t follow again.”
“You will throw me out of the meeting, try to put me in, right?” Spindell replied. He did not continue the comments about Milwaukee, saying, “I said what I have to say.”
After the meeting, Spindell told journalists That he pressed on the probe to vote, saying that it was “very, very bad judgment.” He said that the problem is greater than the invalid voting cards in Madison, but Jacobs avoids investigation to protect the democratic election officials of Milwaukee. According to the Associated Press Spindell, he was one of the 10 Republicans who signed certificates in 2020 Stating that Donald Trump won Wisconsin. Democrat Joe Biden actually won the state this year.
Jacobs told journalists that Spindell must stop kidnaping business meetings that are not in the agenda and that he does not know what he wants from the investigation. “The investigation must have a different goal than the theories of complaining, complaining and conspiracy” Jacobs said.
Before starting the argument, Jacobs said that she and commissioner GOP Don Millis submitted Witzel-Behl and others, which, as she said, caused that the information that they think would be helpful in the recommendation of the up-to-date best practices for local officials in absent votes.
“I really think that what we have learned will help us do better work in some of this absent voting processing”, ” Jacobs said.
Prosecutor Madison City Michael Haas is Serving as an acting official When the city is looking for a enduring exchange.
Haas previously served as Wec administratorAfter his work for the now defunct government council for responsibility. The state legislator kept by the Republicans Forbidden gab 10 years ago, after the Supreme Court, Wisconsin, detained the investigation of the board in the case of the then. Scott Walker (R) campaign.
Counting the room intentionally covered from the view
Before the election on April 1, the election integrity indicator Honest elections Wisconsin challenged 4 878 allegedly illegal registration of voters who gave voting cards in the November election in Milwaukee. However, the challenges of the bottom -up group failed because the city’s election committee refused to examine them.
During the April election, the Milwaukee Paulina Gutierrez election director blocked observers According to Wisconsin State State, representative of Dave Maxey (R).
“The reason I wanted to get to these rooms is:” Why will you cover the windows? Why did you have postal containers arranged in front of a glass and covering the view of people? ” Maxey said Federalist. “If there is nothing to see, let’s be as limpid as the window.”
Milwaukee Mayor of Cavalier Johnson (D) Communication Director, Jeff Fleming, he said Federalist It’s “[t]There were several rooms here that had limited access, a safe voting room in addition to private offices. “
While the observers were banned from these areas, Maxey said that he briefly allowed him to access a protected voting card and one of the braid. In a protected voting card, Maxey said that he saw shelves full of empty ballots.
“They had empty voting cards earlier for many totems, I think every unit. What I saw are shelves” Maxey said. “In Ward, there were no voting cards not completed. … Because someone would ask for absent voting, they took them and sent them to send them.”
He says he didn’t see anything suspicious in the room. After receiving to vote, the employees took them to the room, divided them through Ward, and then alphabetized.
“If empty voting cards or empty voting cards and a possible compromise in this is what makes this non -observable area, alphabetizes in the open” Maxey said. “It was a place.”
Fleming explained how a protected voting card is used.
“Safe voting card is a place where the reversed absent to vote are sorted and processed on the day of elections, as well as on days and weeks before sending a central location to the floor, where they are actually included” Fleming said Federalist. “[O]The Council of Electoral Commissioners, including both republican and democratic, can enter these areas and observe, as well as electoral officials to perform electoral duties. … [T]He protects him for storing electoral materials. The room is closed and below 24-hour supervision. “
Quoted Wisconsin § 6.88 AND § 7.53 (2m)Speaking, the city clerk’s office “must take” such actions as sorting before the election day, regardless of whether he uses the “Constelable Council from absence … or his absent voting cards in the ward in the ward where he will live on election day.” Fleming added that the previous act does not require “this sorting and processing can be observed in public.”
“[R]Concern observers access to government offices a few weeks before the election was unjustified by electoral officials in performing the required duties “,” He said.
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Natalia Mittelstadt is only a news reporter.
Photo “People in a voting queue” Liz West. CC at 2.0.
