Celestine Jeffreys. PC: Fox 11 Online
(WTAQ-WLUK) — The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted Monday morning to conclude its investigation into Green Bay issuing duplicate ballots for two recent elections, but it will wait to decide whether former Clerk Celestine Jeffreys violated the law.
However, WEC staff has previously stated there was probable cause Jeffreys violated the law by sending out 152 duplicate ballots for the April election. That recommendation was made before the WEC was aware of a second instance of duplicate ballots being issued ahead of the August primary election.
The commission ordered the investigation July 9. The goal was to find out what happened, ensure the city is taking proper action to make sure the errors don’t happen again and that other municipalities are not using similar procedures.
At its Monday meeting, the commission ordered WEC staff to draft a new recommendation letter as to whether Jeffreys took “actions contrary to law” and whether she did “abuse her discretion.” The commission will then vote on the WEC staff recommendation at a future meeting.
As part of the WEC investigation, Green Bay admitted it is “reasonably certain 244 regular absentee voters received a duplicate ballot, however, print data reveals up to 390 regular absentee ballot labels may have been reprinted” for the August primary.
“Staff believed the City of Green Bay answered the commission’s questions and directives as fully as possible given some of the facts, including such as how many duplicate absentee ballots were sent out in the June incident appear to just be unknowable due to the nature of how these duplicate absentee ballots were made,” said Angela O’Brien Sharpe, a Wisconsin Elections Commission attorney supervisor.
WEC staff agrees with the city that the “root problem in both incidents seemed to be individuals either not realizing that a batch had already been sent out, or concluding that labels were missing when they weren’t.”
In documents the city provided the WEC, Jeffreys was blamed for the incidents.
Jeffreys was put on administrative leave the same day the WEC ordered its investigation. She resigned a month later –- after the city blamed her for the duplicate ballot issues.
The city has said only one ballot per eligible voter was counted in each election where duplicate absentee ballots were sent.
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