GOP complaints against Milwaukee, Madison claiming too few election workers draw pushback

The Republican parties in Milwaukee and Dane counties filed complaints accusing election officials in Wisconsin's two Democratic strongholds of failing to hire the number of Republican election workers required by law in last week's election.

The complaints were filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, according to a Wednesday statement from the Republican National Committee.

In a statement, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley accused the election officials of violating state law by "refusing to hire a fair number of Republican election inspectors, despite having hundreds of Republican nominees available."

A long-standing Wisconsin law requires clerks to use lists submitted by the Democratic and Republican parties when they hire poll workers. In the past, the parties have provided far fewer names than what clerks need, so clerks often appoint people who aren’t affiliated with a party, according to election officials.

Election officials in Milwaukee and Madison took issue with the allegations in the complaints, which RNC officials said they filed against clerks in the state's two largest Democratic centers. A spokeswoman did not immediately say whether the RNC examined poll worker staffing levels in other municipalities.

Republicans have put a focus on recruiting GOP poll workers for elections since the 2020 election, when former President Donald Trump launched false claims of a stolen election, triggering intense scrutiny of election practices.

In a complaint RNC officials said was filed this week against the Madison City Clerk, John Barnes of Cambridge alleges he was barred from serving as a poll worker because Madison election officials utilized “arbitrary and improper procedures to effectively eliminate them from consideration or the further ability to serve as an election inspector.”

Barnes and RNC officials allege the Madison clerk put rules on GOP poll workers that did not apply to nonpartisan workers or workers from the Democratic Party.

Madison city officials characterized the allegations as “significant misstatements of the actual facts.”

“Our initial analysis shows that all proper procedures were followed in appointing election inspectors and that many individuals nominated by the Republican Party did not complete required paperwork to be hired or respond to communications from the Clerk’s Office regarding their availability,” Michael Haas, Madison City Attorney, said.

Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said her office “reached out to all political appointees, but most did not respond.”

In Milwaukee, complainant Charles Hanna alleged he was never contacted by the city Election Commission to serve as an election inspector for the April 2 election despite having been "qualified, nominated and appointed." The complaint also accuses the city of failing to contact and schedule "numerous" other Republican Party election inspectors and adding "arbitrary" requirements and procedures to the poll worker appointment process.

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall, who was named as a respondent along with her office, told the Journal Sentinel Wednesday that every polling place across the city and the central location where absentee ballots are counted had "party balance" as required by state law.

"In my brief glance at the complaint, it does not provide a thorough view of the data," she said.

She said she was proactive in reaching out to the Republican Party with the list of everyone who had submitted applications but still needed to complete the second required step of filling out a one-page City of Milwaukee employee information sheet, in case the party wanted to contact those potential poll workers. She said there were also people who were assigned but declined their assignments because they were not available.

Woodall said the office is still going through its payroll process and won't know who actually worked the April 2 election until later in the week.

She said Hanna, the named complainant, had not completed the Milwaukee Election Commission's process to become an election worker.

The process requires potential election workers to complete an application either online or at the Election Commission office, a step in which staff check that the person meets the requirements to be an election worker. He did not complete the second step of filling out the one-page City of Milwaukee employee information sheet, Woodall said.

She said he was contacted five times to complete the second step since he filed his application in January.

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected]. Molly Beck can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: GOP files complaints against Milwaukee, Madison over April 2 election