{"id":1492530,"date":"2024-09-27T12:50:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T16:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1492530"},"modified":"2024-09-27T12:50:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T16:50:00","slug":"this-was-a-mistake-wisconsin-city-clerk-office-confirms-it-sent-out-2200-duplicate-ballots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/this-was-a-mistake-wisconsin-city-clerk-office-confirms-it-sent-out-2200-duplicate-ballots\/1492530\/","title":{"rendered":"“This Was A Mistake”: Wisconsin City Clerk Office Confirms It Sent Out 2,200 Duplicate Ballots"},"content":{"rendered":"

“This Was A Mistake”: Wisconsin City Clerk Office Confirms It Sent Out 2,200 Duplicate Ballots<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

The City of Madison has confirmed that more than 2,000 voters in Wisconsin\u2019s capital city were sent duplicate absentee ballots, weeks before the November election.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Election ballots stacked in a box as workers count mail-in and in-person absentee ballots at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee on Nov. 8, 2022. Scott Olson\/Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a mistake,\u201d Madison city spokesperson Dylan Brogan said. \u201cThe clerk\u2019s office moved to rectify it as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 23, the City of Madison initially said<\/a> that \u201caround 2,000\u201d duplicated ballots were sent to voters in the city, prompting concerns from Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), who sent a letter to the city clerk demanding answers about how many duplicated ballots were sent out.<\/p>\n

Responding to Tiffany\u2019s letter, Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl released a statement<\/a> on Sept. 25 confirming that 2,215 duplicate ballots were sent out in Madison, which has leaned heavily Democratic in recent presidential elections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The error, she said, was disclosed by voters who received the ballots, prompting an immediate investigation by the city clerk\u2019s office. No duplicate ballots have been returned, according to the city.<\/p>\n

The sending out of the erroneous ballots was caused by a \u201csimple data processing error made by one of the many dedicated, professional staff who work for the City,<\/strong> and as noted above the process has since been corrected to prevent a similar error from occurring,\u201d Witzel-Behl said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that this incident involved human error and involved no criminal conduct, so there is no reason to contact law enforcement,\u201d Witzel-Behl said, responding to Tiffany\u2019s question about whether law enforcement was involved.<\/p>\n

She said that \u201coccasionally human errors\u201d occur in elections and that the city\u2019s staff works \u201cincredibly hard to conduct elections in a professional, nonpartisan and fair manner and works to continually assess and improve\u201d its processes. She then alluded to \u201cattacks\u201d targeting election officials that \u201cseek to undermine the confidence of voters in … election results.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2020 presidential contest, election officials narrowly certified then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden as winner over President Donald Trump in the battleground state.<\/p>\n

Two recount efforts were initiated across Wisconsin in the aftermath, including one involving Madison. Ultimately, the state certified Biden as the victor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his letter<\/a>, Tiffany made reference to the 2020 election and alleged that Madison officials have a \u201chistory of controversial and legally dubious election practices,\u201d adding that it\u2019s \u201cimportant\u201d for the Wisconsin capital \u201cto provide full transparency regarding how an \u2018error\u2019 of this magnitude was allowed to happen at such a pivotal time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters deserve clear answers regarding the full scope of this blunder, how the city plans to restore public confidence in its ability to accurately administer the election, and assurances that those responsible are held accountable,\u201d the lawmaker said.<\/p>\n

On social media<\/a>, Tiffany posted a letter, dated Sept. 26, to the clerk\u2019s office saying that he rejects her explanation for the sending of duplicated ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn independent, third-party investigation is needed to restore public trust,<\/strong>\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Brogan, the city spokesman, said the mistake occurred when two identical files were merged, resulting in the creation of a list with double the names and double the addresses. Up to 2,000 duplicate ballots in one ward were mailed late last week before the mistake was caught and corrected, Brogan said.<\/p>\n

The clerk\u2019s office has been contacting voters individually to notify them of the error and cautioning them to submit only one ballot, Brogan said. However, because the ballots have identical barcodes, if two ballots are submitted, only the first one scanned will be counted, Brogan said.<\/p>\n

As of Sept. 23, Madison had sent 27,421 absentee ballots and none had been returned, according to the state elections commission. Brogan echoed what the city\u2019s statement said in that none of the duplicate ballots had been returned since then.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 09\/27\/2024 – 08:50<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/was-mistake-wisconsin-city-clerk-office-confirms-it-sent-out-2200-duplicate-ballots<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This Was A Mistake”: Wisconsin City Clerk Office Confirms It Sent Out 2,200 Duplicate Ballots Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1492531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1492530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1492530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1492531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1492530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1492530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1492530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}