MADISON – Madison’s Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl was placed on leave Wednesday pending an investigation into 193 absentee ballots that went uncounted in the 2024 presidential election.
In a press release, the city said the investigation would look at the uncounted ballots and other aspects of Witzel-Behl’s performance.
City Attorney Michael Haas will serve as the acting city clerk for the April 1 election and oversee office operations “to make sure everything runs smoothly.” The April election includes high-profile races for Wisconsin Supreme Court and state school superintendent.
“I am completely confident in the ability of the highly trained, incredibly competent professional staff at the Clerk’s Office to continue the operations of the office without interruption,” Haas said in the release. “I look forward to working with them to ensure a secure, transparent, and safe election.”
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the nature of the issues being investigated warranted Witzel-Behl taking a step back and the city ensuring operations of the clerk’s office continue without interruption.
“The City of Madison places an incredibly high value on our ability to conduct elections to the highest standards, and will spare no City resource to ensure that each vote is counted for the upcoming election,” she said in the release.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway
Haas previously served as administrator of and legal counsel to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the release said, and has extensive experience with elections and administrative law.
On Dec. 26, the Madison clerk’s office issued a public statement disclosing that 193 ballots had not been processed from three wards. The ballots were discovered Nov. 12 and Dec. 3 during post-election cleanup and reconciliation.
The number of ballots wasn’t enough to affect the outcome of any races, the clerk’s office said.
The clerk’s office emailed the state’s Election Commission on Dec. 18 to inform it of the uncounted ballots and ask for guidance. The commission certified the results of the election Nov. 29.
The clerk’s office said it would contact each affected voter to notify them and apologize. For future elections, the office also said every polling location will receive a list of the seal numbers for absentee ballot envelopes so they could be verified as ballots are counted.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted in January to use its investigative authority for the first time in its eight-year history to understand how the ballots went uncounted in the Nov. 5 election.
Commissioners will discuss the review’s findings at a future meeting.
A group of Madison voters, represented by liberal law firm Law Forward, last week sued the city and county officials over failing to count the ballots, claiming Witzel-Behl disenfranchised their right to vote.
Jeff Mandell, general counsel for Law Forward, said many of the uncounted votes were those of University of Wisconsin students in the downtown area, who were voting in their first presidential election.
Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X @SchulteLaura.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Madison clerk placed on leave over uncounted ballots
