(This article has been updated to add new information.)
Green Bay officials attributed a duplicate ballot error ahead of the Aug. 11 primary election, the second of the year, to city clerk Celestine Jeffreys reprinting mailing labels that she believed were missing, according to a July 31 letter sent to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
The letter described the clerk’s office preparing to send absentee ballots ahead of the June 25 deadline. It received 11 boxes of mailing labels, four of which had labels for over 1,700 regular absentee voters, according to the letter.
The morning of June 22, Jeffreys looked through one of four boxes “to ensure labels were correctly printed and complete,” the letter said. She believed some labels were missing, then printed the labels she believed still needed to be printed, according to the letter. The labels were put onto envelopes, mailed out and later identified as the source of the replica ballots.
It was not immediately clear how many labels were reprinted. The city did not grant any interview requests on the issue July 31. City communications director Michael Bergman said the city will not be doing any interviews.
“As I have said all along, this is either gross incompetence or something worse − and the difference matters,” said Nicholas Boerke, an attorney who has represented complainants against Jeffreys on the issue, in a statement to the Press-Gazette. “An unsworn letter from a city lawyer, with no records, no affidavit, and nothing the (former) Clerk will stand behind under oath, is not accountability. More is necessary. The Commission can subpoena records and take testimony under oath. The Mayor and Common Council should stop waiting for others to do their job and start showing they take election integrity seriously.”
Jeffreys has been on administrative leave since July 9. The City Council on July 21 appointed Stacy Menke as interim city clerk.
The letter was a response to the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s order that the city provide an explanation by July 31 on how the clerk’s office duplicated ballots in two separate instances, a situation that commission chairwoman Ann Jacobs has called “unconscionable.”
The clerk’s office first mailed duplicate ballots ahead of the April 7 spring election. In that instance, the elections commission found that Jeffreys likely violated state election laws when she accidentally mailed duplicate ballots to 152 voters. The cause, according to the city’s letter, may have been one of two reasons: that Jeffreys failed to clip labels together before giving it to a staff member or she reprinted an entire batch of labels without first asking her staff. City officials have said no affected voter was able to cast more than one ballot in that election.
At an April 7 news conference, Jeffreys said the duplications happened because staff printed two copies of a sheet of labels. She said to prevent the situation from happening again, city staff would mark every sheet to note printing is done.
She had reiterated the clerk’s office would take measures to prevent future duplications in response to concerns that the duplications could cause “substantial risk of confusion, double voting and (increase) the opportunity for and possibility of fraud.” Going forward, Jeffreys said, she would “ensure that all certificate labels documents are clearly marked to identify date of printing and date of completion” and that she “is exploring technological upgrades to help improve efficiency in printing certificate labels for absentee ballots.”
It was unclear from the city’s letter if the announced safeguards were implemented ahead of the August incident.
The second duplication affected voters across eight wards, largely located on the city’s west side: Wards 11a, 12a, 37a, 44, 45, 46, 47, and part of Ward 43, representing 15% of the city’s 52 total wards. The city’s letter said a voter texted and emailed Jeffreys on June 27 that they had gotten two ballots. Jeffreys immediately told Mayor Eric Genrich, who then told City Attorney Lacey Cochart, the letter said. Jeffreys emailed the Wisconsin Elections Commission the following day.
The second instance prompted backlash from some Republicans who called for audits of the city’s election processes, after which the elections commission ordered an investigation.
The city must report to the elections commission by Aug. 14 its plans to prevent future duplications. All findings will be shared during the City Council’s Aug. 18 meeting.
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. He also writes a weekly column answering reader questions about Green Bay. Contact and send him questions at 920-834-4250 or jlin@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay clerk reprinted labels in ballot duplication error, city says
Reporting by Jesse Lin, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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By Jesse Lin, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
