MADISON — There were some tense moments during a meeting of the Wisconsin Elections Commission Thursday in Madison.
The meeting started out normally enough, with the commission taking public comment before providing an update on their investigation into nearly 200 absentee ballots that went uncounted during the 2024 general election. During the update, Chair Ann Jacobs informed those gathered at the Tommy Thompson Center in Madison that now-former city clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl, who resigned from her post earlier this week, had indeed been deposed by WEC as was alluded to during their last meeting earlier this year.
“Those depositions did raise some additional questions that both Commisioner Millis and I felt required additional investigation,” said Jacobs, who said additional depositions at the City of Madison and Dane County level should be coming in the future.
Before the body was able to move on to their next topic, Commissioner Bob Spindell interjected with comments regarding a shortage of ballots in the City of Milwaukee during the April 1st, 2025 election.
“I think that more serious problem is in the City of Milwaukee,” said Spindell.
But Chair Jacobs was quick to point out that the ballot shortage matter was not on the WEC agenda for the meeting.
“I’m ruling your comments out of order, Bob,” said Jacobs, while Spindell continued to speak.
The back-and-forth reached a fever pitch when Jacobs threatened to eject Spindell out of the meeting.
“You are out of order, and I will eject you from this meeting if you disobey again!” said Jacobs.
“Oh, you’re going to muzzle me?” retorted Spindell.
Ultimately, the exchange ended without an ejection.
Spindell is no stranger to contentious topics during his six-year tenure as a WEC chair. The long-time Republican activist and businessperson previously faced calls to resign after falsely declaring that former President Donald Trump won the state in the 2020 election, and bragged following the 2022 midterm election about efforts to depress Black and Hispanic voter turnout in Milwaukee.
As for the Milwaukee ballot shortage, the city’s election commissioner Paulina Guttierez said during the board’s meeting Monday that the body would explore printing out ballots for every registered voter in the city to avoid a similar situation from occurring again, rather than printing ballots based on previous voter turnout.
The city reported an 11 percent increase in turnout April 1st compared to the 2023 spring election, which the commission says is likely due to increased national attention of the state Supreme Court race between now justice-elect Susan Crawford and her challenger Brad Schimel.
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