The Republican Party of Wisconsin has filed an ethics complaint after Green Bay’s city clerk admitted to sending duplicate mail-in ballots to 152 voters.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint Monday with the Wisconsin Elections Commission alleging that Green Bay City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys mailed more than one absentee ballot to the same voter in at least 152 instances ahead of the April 7 spring election.
The complaint, filed in conjunction with a qualified elector from Green Bay, charges that Jeffreys’ office violated state absentee ballot rules by issuing unauthorized duplicate ballots without following required spoiling and destruction procedures under Wisconsin Statutes §§ 6.86 and 7.15.
The error affected multiple wards and came to light when voters who had already returned their ballots received unsolicited duplicates. Jeffreys publicly admitted the mistake in a Fox 11 News report Thursday, attributing it to a “system glitch.”
Despite repeated requests from the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Republican Party of Brown County, the clerk’s office has not provided details on a plan to track and handle the ballots to prevent any duplicates from being counted on Election Day, according to the complaint.
“Wisconsin law is clear: one voter, one ballot,” Wisconsin GOP Chairman Brian Schimming said in a statement. “This reckless failure by the Green Bay clerk has created serious risks of double voting and fraud. The Elections Commission must immediately investigate and order a concrete plan to secure Tuesday’s election.”
The GOP is asking the commission to launch a full investigation into the cause and scope of the issue, order Green Bay to detail how it will identify and segregate any duplicate ballots at central count and require corrective action to prevent future violations.
