‘Unconscionable Result’: Former WI City Clerk Under Fire In Ballot Debacle
By: M.D. Kittle July 16, 20251/2
Satya Rhodes-Conway,Madison’s far-left mayor, has long wagged her finger at the most basic election integrity efforts. Voter ID, to Madison leftists like the mayor, is “voter suppression.”
In 2022, when the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against the expansive use of ballot drop boxes,Rhodes-Conway called efforts to check their use an act of “racist voter suppression” and an “attack on voting.”
But Wisconsin’s capital city, which loves to applaud itself for its“inclusivity,” is dealing with quite the black eye after its city clerk’s office disenfranchised nearly 200 voters.
A damning report by the Wisconsin Elections Commission finds Madison’s top election official oversaw a “confluence of errors” leading to an “unconscionable result” in her office’s failure to count 193 absentee ballots in November’s election. As The Federalist reported, it appears longtime City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl was more interested in going on vacation than righting a series of wrongs in a system that lost track of ballots and cost Madison voters a vital right.
“These actions resulted in nearly 200 lawful voters’ votes going uncounted – an unconscionable result,” states the bipartisan report, authored by WEC Chairwoman Ann Jacobs, a Democrat appointee, and Commissioner Don Millis, a Republican. “This profound failure undermines public confidence in elections.”
‘Dereliction of Duties’
At its meeting on Thursday, the commission is expected to consider a draft decision letter and proposed order with conclusions drawn from the election regulator’s six-month investigation.The purpose of the probe was to determinewhether “Witzel-Behl tookactions that were contrary to law, or abused her discretion, with respect to 193 absentee ballots that were properly received, but not counted, during the November 5, 2024, General Election.”
Spoiler Alert: She did, according to WEC investigators.
The report’s legal analysis notes five counts of election law violations, including a failure to train election inspectors and a failure to have charge and supervision over post-election tasks.
The disgraced clerk resigned in April amid investigationsand after being placed on leave. A city report issued in late April found Witzel-Behl violated administrative policy and the terms of her employment contract. Her handling of the uncounted ballots showed a “dereliction of duties,” according to the report. Investigators also found the former election official’s accounts of events inconsistent.
“There issignificant evidence to support the contentionthat her responses to questions given in interviews related to this investigation, her responses to WEC, information she provided to the Office of the City Attorneyand information she provided to the Mayor’s Office deviated significantly from, and was inconsistent with, the recall of all other interviewees,” the city report states.
‘Astonishing Lack of Action’
The city’s and the commission’s reports lay out the timeline of events, from pre-election to the discovery on Nov. 12 of the first sealed green courier bag continuing 68 uncounted absentee ballots from two wards to the discovery of another 125 unprocessed ballots from another ward during the early December reconciliation process.Witzel-Behl’s office failed to report the problem to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, as required by law, until Dec. 18, nearly a month-and-a-half after the election.Even then, the city didn’t alert the WEC to the uncounted ballotsas much as it requested help in a“reconciliation override” to enter the “unprocessed” votesinto the state’s election system.
Elections Commission investigators found that “there was a complete lack of leadership in the City Clerk’s office.”
https://thefederalist.com/2025/07/16/unconscionable-result-former-wi-city-clerk-under-fire-in-ballot-debacle/