GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A spirited Green Bay city council meeting lasted more than five hours Tuesday night, with the topic of heavy interest being election rules.
Six election-related proposals brought out the largest in-person audience for a Green Bay city council meeting since before the pandemic.
“All these people care about the city, that is why they’re here and we don’t trust the city,” said Matt Roeser, a Green Bay resident. ” We want it back and we want respect.”
As much as the in-person crowd seemed to have concerns for Green Bay’s recent handling of elections, a virtual crowd attending the meeting on Zoom mostly seemed to be happy with the city’s election practices.
“The right to vote is so important,” said Eric Kuzma, a Green Bay resident. “We should be expanding accessibility to voting.”
The city continues to face accusations it turned over adminstration of the November 2020 election to outsiders as part of a $1.6 million grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life.
City officials have denied those claims.
The proposals discussed Tuesday night included using tabulators that don’t have modems or internet connections, reviewing the absentee ballot curing process, discontinuing the use of drop boxes, excluding outside money and advisors, eliminating voting navigators, and no city driven, targeted, election campaigns.
“As an immunocrompomised person myself, I was able to use a drop box to drop off my ballot during the pandemic, so as though I wouldn’t have to choose between myself and my right to vote,” said Hannah Malmberg, a Green Bay resident. “No one should face barriers voting.”
“Nobody wants to stop people from electing, but the responsibility to administer the election is to administer the election from the city,” said Sandy Duckett, a Green Bay resident.
The council voted to have staff affirm in writing that tabulators with modems or internet connections will not be used. Staff was also asked to review the absentee ballot curing process, look at possibly creating an ordinance for accepting outside grant money, and to identify processes that can be used to ensure the public is informed of the election process.
The council voted to not take action on the requests to eliminate the use of drop boxes and voter navigators.
“All this finger pointing…it’s tiring, very tiring,” said Mark Steuer, a Green Bay alderperson. “Own up to it. A lot of this is going back to committee. We’ll try our darndest to do the right thing.”
The next election is about a month away, on April 5th.
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