On Friday, the Wisconsin Election Commission voted in favor of alterations for the city of Madison after nearly 200 absentee ballots went missing in last November’s election.
The Committee’s 5-1 decision is requiring sweeping changes across the processing and handling of absentee ballots. The city lost, and failed to count 193 ballots in the 2024 presidential election.
Initially, there was a bag from two wards, with 68 uncounted ballots that went missing. During the reconciliation process on the third of December, election officials found two sealed envelopes with 125 uncounted ballots inside.
The city alerted the Commission on December 20th, over a month after election night. The missing ballots were not significant enough to change any local, state or federal elections. (RELATED: How Wisconsin’s New Maps Shifted Political Power — and Why Texas Is Next)
Madison City Attorney Mike Haas, wrote a letter to the WEC on August 6th disputing the meeting from July. The meeting was to decide whether to accept a report stating the election violations and missing ballots by the city of Madison. The commission voted 5-1 to accept the report, then launched an investigation.
“Given the City’s training resources as they existed in November and as they have been supplemented since then, I believe the Commission would be hard-pressed to find another Wisconsin municipality that provides such detailed and comprehensive training and tools for its election inspectors,” said Haas in his letter.
The WEC ordered the city of Madison to submit a written certification of compliance with the WEC’s seven stipulations ordered against them. (RELATED: Congressman Says Wisconsin Sanctuary County Should Lose All Funding)
