Hi, folks,

Before 2025, the Wisconsin Elections Commission had never exercised its ability to investigate election officials. Nine years after the agency’s creation, that changed, following the 2024 Madison ballot snafu when the city mistakenly lost 193 votes.

Since then, the commission briefly looked into Mequon’s controversial address standard on absentee ballots and Madison’s decision to count absentee ballots that arrived at polling places after 8 p.m. on Election Day.

More recently, the commission investigated Green Bay after former City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys mistakenly sent out duplicate absentee ballots in two elections this year. 

On Wednesday, the commission concluded the investigation and an administrative complaint against Jeffreys. The commission found probable cause that city officials violated state law by sending out duplicate ballots and abused their discretion by not establishing practices after the first incident to prevent the error from happening again. 

The commission also ordered Green Bay officials to tell the agency for the next three elections any time they reprint a voter’s label.

There are some mixed feelings among local officials about the commission’s newfound willingness to investigate them. 

That was evident in an August letter in which Green Bay City Attorney Lacey Cochart told the commission that while election mistakes deserve some scrutiny, “Wisconsin’s elections staff also are entitled to a degree of grace and to guidance and criticism that is offered in good faith.”

But the commission isn’t investigating every mistake it looks into. 

After asking Milwaukee — as a form of inquiry, but not an official investigation — for additional information about officials initially forgetting to extract results from five tabulators in the August election, the commission closed the matter on Wednesday and thanked the city for responding to its questions.

“The city fully complied,” Commissioner Mark Thomsen, a Democrat, said at the meeting. “Time to move on.”

Let me know what questions you have about elections in Wisconsin. You can reach me at [email protected] or by replying to this email. 

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