Green Bay has placed City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys on administrative leave pending an administrative review and investigation by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC). The action follows WEC approval of a probe into the office sending duplicate absentee ballots to voters in back-to-back elections, as reported by WisPolitics’ JR Ross. The city tied the move directly to the ongoing WEC review of election procedures in the clerk’s office.
Commissioners greenlit the investigation during their July 9 quarterly meeting. The probe will determine whether the clerk, staff or contractors failed to comply with election law or abused discretion when handling absentee ballots.
The issues span two elections. In April, ahead of the spring election, the clerk’s office mailed duplicate ballots to 152 voters. Officials attributed the error to an administrative mistake during label processing. A batch of certificate envelope labels was not filed properly. An election worker then recopied the batch and created the duplicates.
WEC staff reviewed the case after a complaint filed by a Green Bay voter with assistance from the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Staff concluded the action likely violated state law under statutes governing absentee ballot issuance. The commission noted that clerks should not issue two identical live ballots to the same elector without following required spoiling and chain-of-custody steps.
City officials said they notified affected voters and implemented tracking so only one ballot per person was counted. No double voting took place and the clerk added new safeguards after the incident.
Those safeguards failed to prevent a second round of errors. Duplicate ballots went out to more than 200 voters across eight west-side wards ahead of the August 11 partisan primary.
The WEC has ordered the clerk’s office to explain both errors in detail. The office must report how the duplications occurred, including software, procedures and any third-party vendors used, by July 31. A plan to ensure every elector receives only one ballot is due by August 14.
