Auditors find voting machines work properly, say election officials should adopt formal rules on drop boxes
This story was republished on Jan. 7, 2022 to make it free for all readers
MADISON – Legislative auditors released a report Friday that contended the state Elections Commission should adopt formal rules if it wants to continue to allow cities to have ballot drop boxes — a move that would clear the way for lawmakers to try to bar their use.
The report by the Legislative Audit Bureau was not meant to assess the outcome of the 2020 election, but it noted that none of the machines it reviewed counted votes incorrectly.
One of the Republican lawmakers who oversees audits for the Legislature said the review showed the 2020 election was "largely safe and secure" but also revealed the need for changes to the state’s voting systems.
The bureau released its findings and recommendations without first allowing the state Elections Commission to review its analysis and respond, which has been the bureau's practice for years.
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The report is one of two that have been ordered by Republican lawmakers. The other is being conducted on behalf of Assembly Republicans by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who claimed without evidence last year that the election was stolen.
Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin by nearly 21,000 votes, or 0.6 points. Recounts and courts have upheld his victory and the auditors offered further evidence showing the votes were tallied correctly.
Republican Sen. Rob Cowles of Allouez, a co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Audit Committee, said in a tweet the review reveals election officials and lawmakers "have work to do."
"However, despite concerns with statewide elections procedures, this audit showed us that the election was largely safe and secure," he wrote in his tweet.
In a news release, he added that he was concerned that the Elections Commission and its staff "are not complying with state statute on several fronts, from clerk training to verification of voters and voter registration."
New rules needed
At least 245 of Wisconsin’s nearly 1,900 municipalities used ballot drop boxes last year, according to the report.
They proved popular as voters turned to absentee voting in large numbers during the coronavirus pandemic but they also drew criticism. Conservatives sued over their use this summer and a hearing that could determine their fate is to be held in December.
The auditors concluded the bipartisan Elections Commission needs to adopt what are known as administrative rules to continue to use drop boxes.
If the commission adopts rules, Republicans who control the Legislature can easily and quickly block them. Such a move could prevent the use of drop boxes in future elections.
If the commission continues its policies without adopting rules, it risks more litigation on the issue.
As with drop boxes, the auditors found the commission should adopt rules related to a 5-year-old policy allowing clerks to fill in missing information on witness addresses on absentee ballot envelopes.
The auditors reviewed documentation for nearly 15,000 absentee ballots from 29 municipalities.
More than 1,000 certificates, or 7% of those sampled, had partial addresses for witnesses. Most of those were missing a ZIP code but included other parts of the address.
Fifteen lacked witness addresses entirely, eight lacked witness signatures and three lacked voter signatures. Certificates without signatures should not be counted under state law.
Trump challenged the policy after the 2020 election, but the state Supreme Court found he had done so too late. Such challenges need to be brought before elections, not after them, the court found in its 4-3 ruling.
Democratic Rep. Mark Spreitzer of Beloit, who sits on the Assembly Elections Committee, said a fight over election rules could lead to even more differences in voting policies from one town to the next.
Clerks have wide latitude to run elections in their communities as they see fit. If Republican lawmakers blocked rules by the Elections Commission, some clerks might continue to allow drop boxes while others might not, he said.
"It would be unfortunate if we end up in a situation where our statewide election authority can’t issue guidance and we have some clerks doing one thing and some clerks doing another," Spreitzer said.
He added: "Overall, the audit confirms that there was not systemic fraud, that we have no reason to doubt the outcome of the election or the security of the election."
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican from Rochester, took a different view, saying in a statement that the review "proves why further investigation is necessary."
Sen. Kathy Bernier, a Republican from Lake Hallie and former Chippewa County clerk, said in a statement that the audit "did not reveal any sizable or organized attempt at voter fraud."
"What the audit did show was that, once again, election administration at both the state and local level was sloppy," she said.
Wisconsin is unique among states because elections are primarily administered by municipalities, rather than counties or the state. That can lead to policies and practices that differ significantly from one community to the next.
84 ballots counted twice
Auditors found 84 instances of ballots being counted twice when voting machines jammed. Poll workers resent ballots through the machines because they wrongly believed they hadn’t been counted the first time, according to auditors.
Auditors said the incidents showed the need for better training of poll workers.
Auditors also identified 11 people who had likely died between the time they cast absentee ballots and Election Day. In addition, they found eight people who may have illegally cast ballots while still serving felony sentences.
Voting machines work properly
Clerks must test voting machines 10 days before an election. Auditors reviewed 175 of those pre-election tests in 25 municipalities and found just half of them had been conducted within 10 days of the November election. The others were conducted more than 10 days before the election.
Auditors reviewed 60 machine tests in detail, finding 59 of them had accurate counts. The other test had insufficient documentation, which prevented auditors from making a determination on its accuracy.
State law requires each piece of electronic voting equipment to have a tamper-evident seal, which poll workers are required to certify on election day as being in place. Out of a random sample of 319 municipalities, auditors found 87% were certified and 13% were not. The lack of poll workers’ initials "may indicate that the poll workers found problems with the seals or forgot to initial the forms," auditors wrote.
In reviewing the state's voter rolls, auditors found 70 duplicative voter registration records and four cases in which someone may have voted twice. About 3.3 million Wisconsinites cast ballots in the presidential election.
Alternate locations for voting
Thirteen clerks told auditors they had collected absentee ballots in person at sites other than their offices last year.
Madison drew the most attention for that practice by holding "Democracy in the Park" events that allowed voters to return absentee ballots they had received by mail to clerks who were stationed in more than 200 parks.
Clerks from elsewhere — many of them in small towns — also accepted ballots at alternative locations.
Some of those clerks perform their usual duties in their homes but didn’t want to allow voters inside during the pandemic. Instead, some of those clerks held special events at other sites where voters could return absentee ballots. One clerk — unnamed in the report — visited voters’ homes to let them vote early.
Auditors face questions
The audit bureau for years has been widely respected by Republicans and Democrats, but Democrats and the commission have expressed concerns about how it conducted its election review.
Normally, state agencies have extensive back-and-forth conversations with auditors about the decisions they make. They have a chance to review audit reports before they are released so they can append a response to them.
The Elections Commission wasn’t given that opportunity for this review. Meagan Wolfe, the director of the commission, expressed disappointment at not getting to review a draft of the report in advance, saying she could have helped auditors be more precise.
More: Attorney General Josh Kaul seeks to block subpoenas Gableman issued to state elections officials
In the report, auditors wrote that they did not provide the report to the commission and the 179 clerks they had contacted because they wanted to preserve the report's confidentiality.
Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, a Republican from Kaukauna, expressed frustration that Madison and Milwaukee County would not let auditors physically handle some records, accusing the Democratic strongholds of engaging in a "blatant attempt to thwart the public's right to know."
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson called Steineke's description of what happened a distortion. He said auditors were allowed to handle most election materials but not ballots.
He said he told them his staff would show them any ballots they wanted to see but they could not touch them. They did not ultimately ask to see any ballots, Christenson said.
"They had full access to all election material," Christenson said. "I think (the description of the situation in the report) was an innocuous statement that is being blown out of proportion by Republicans who are still trying to perpetuate the big lie."
Madison, Milwaukee County and Little Suamico in Oconto County didn't allow auditors to handle ballots because of recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice to election officials around the country.
Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl told auditors that guidance requires her to protect election materials and ballots but offered to allow auditors to look at copies.
"While I do not question the integrity of your staff and ability to handle sensitive records, I cannot in good conscience, take the risk that ballots or other election records will be inadvertently altered or damaged if we allow them to physically handle records," she wrote auditors in an Aug. 24 letter.
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Contact Patrick Marley at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin election audit finds voting machines worked properly
