The Wisconsin election official who resigned after her office failed to count nearly 200 absentee ballots in November’s presidential election violated city policy and the terms of her contract, according to an internal report released on Tuesday. 

Former Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl was derelict in her duties, “inconsistent” in her testimony, and failed to meet myriad expectations of her post, according to the 14-page investigative findings. The report identified “significant violations” committed by the elections official. 

“While the mistake in getting the ballots counted on Election Night appears to have been primarily a process of training failure that could have been avoided, there were multiple opportunities for the ballots to have subsequently been counted after Election Day,” the report, prepared by the city’s Human Resources director and the Parks superintendent, said. “The failure to do so was a dereliction of duties on the part of the City Clerk.” 

The report hammers Witzel-Behl for all manner of election oversight negligence, after leftist Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway praised the former clerk for her many years of service following her resignation, including kudos for Witzel-Behl’s commitment to “inclusivity.” 

“On behalf of City of Madison residents, I want to extend my gratitude to Maribeth for her commitment and dedication to public service,” Rhodes-Conway said in a press release. “Maribeth embodies the motto she brought to the Clerk’s Office: ‘We exist to assist.’ I wish her the very best in future endeavors.”  

Documents show the former clerk spent portions of 19 days on vacation following the election, as her staff members discovered and attempted to deal with the uncounted ballots. Among other deficiencies, Witzel-Behl failed to “demonstrate attention, care, and efficiency in the performance of her duties related to the uncounted ballots to mitigate an unprecedented failure in the election process,” according to the report. 

The embattled former clerk stepped down earlier this month with her office facing an unprecedented state investigation. That probe, conducted by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, is ongoing and involves depositions of Witzel-Behl and other city elections officials. 

After the clerk resigned, the city suspended its investigation, which the mayor said “was a necessary step to maintain public confidence in the operations of our Clerk’s office.”

City spokesman Dylan Brogan previously told The Federalist that state law prevented the release of the probe’s report until Witzel-Behl had an opportunity to review the findings. 

‘The Frustrating Part’

The report lays out the timeline of events, from pre-election to the discovery on Nov. 12 of the first sealed green courier bag continuing 68 uncounted absentee ballots from two wards to the discovery of another 125 unprocessed ballots from another ward during the early December reconciliation process. Witzel-Behl’s office failed to report the problem to the Wisconsin Elections Commission as required by law until Dec. 18, nearly a month-and-a-half after the election. Even then, the city didn’t alert the WEC to the uncounted ballots as much as it requested help in a “reconciliation override” to enter the “unprocessed” votes into the state’s election system. 

According to the report, Witzel-Behl failed to notify multiple officials — the Dane County clerk, the city attorney, and “anyone in the Mayor’s Office” until long after the ballots were discovered. A review of the former clerk’s communications shows just two emails have anything to do with the uncounted ballots over the period, one of those a “joking” response 

“Must have been been thinking about the two polling places that didn’t even open some of their packs of absentees to count them,” Witzel-Behl curiously wrote to a staff member in response to a typo in a communication to election inspectors, the report notes. 

By the time she got around to informing the powers that be, it was much too late — 193 voters in Wisconsin’s far-left capital city had been disenfranchised. The report suggests some of the ballots could have been saved. Although the names of several individuals are redacted, it’s clear that the investigators spoke to Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, who expressed his frustrations over the failures. 

“The frustrating part of this whole situation is that a fix allowing at least some of the ballots to be counted was pretty simple — a short Madison Municipal Board of Canvass meeting where the ballots are opened and counted, with the updated numbers transmitted to the county to validate. The new results could have been transmitted to the state. This could have happened right up until the State certified the election,” McDonell told investigators, according to the report. 

“According to McDonnel [Sic], this ‘fix’ could not be implemented because his office was never notified of the uncounted ballots,” the report states. 

But Witzel-Behl’s office said McDonell was notified. Witzel-Behl reportedly said a lot of things that investigators found to be “inconsistent.” The report notes “multiple violations” of city policy “related to accuracy in reporting” requiring employees “to be truthful and accurately record all required information…”  

In short, the former clerk’s accounts of what happened differed, sometimes dramatically, from those of staff and others interviewed. 

Witzel-Behl could not be reached for comment Tuesday. 

‘Failures in Leadership’

The report finds no evidence that any one else in the clerk’s office violated policy “as it relates to the inappropriately uncounted ballots.” 

“While errors were made by individual employees, these errors all appeared to be due to to failures in leadership, process, and direction,” the document states. 

The investigation did not find any violation of state elections law, but the report noted that the Wisconsin Elections Commission probe, which “may find potential violations of State law,” is ongoing.  

Witzel-Behl, who was a key figure in the Wisconsin “Zuckbucks” scandal in 2020, made national news in September when more than 2,200 Madison voters received duplicate absentee ballots. City officials claimed the “data processing error” affected an isolated number of voters and was quickly remedied, but the glitch understandably raised election integrity concerns in the closing months of the 2024 presidential election cycle. 

Madison faces a class-action lawsuit over the uncounted ballot debacle. Madison lawfare firm Law Forward, which usually devotes its energies to going after political enemies of the left, is representing the disenfranchised voters. The lawsuit seeks $175,000 for each of the plaintiffs. 

Law Forward attorney Scott Thompson told Wisconsin Public Radio at the time that it doesn’t appear the clerk’s office engaged in a “coordinated anti-democracy effort.”

“But our message today should resonate with anyone who seeks to disrupt Wisconsin’s votes, absentee ballots or otherwise,” Thompson said. “If anyone takes steps to violate a Wisconsinites’ right to vote, there is a price to pay.”

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.