Green Bay’s election office is back under fire after sending duplicate absentee ballots again, raising fresh questions about basic controls that are supposed to stop one voter from getting two live ballots.
Quick Take
- Wisconsin Elections Commission staff said Green Bay likely violated state law in the spring duplicate-ballot case.
- The city says the August problem came from a printing error and affected voters in several wards.
- Officials say they will mail letters telling voters to return only one ballot.
- The repeat error has fueled criticism from Republicans, while city officials say no duplicate ballot will be counted twice.
Spring Warning, Summer Repeat
Wisconsin Elections Commission staff concluded in a draft memo that Green Bay likely broke state law when it sent duplicate absentee ballots to 152 voters in the April election. The draft said, “At no time should there be two identical ‘live’ ballots issued to the same elector,” and it rejected the city’s claim that the mailing was only an administrative mistake.
That finding matters because the same problem came back in the August primary. Local reports said the city again mailed duplicate ballots, this time to voters in seven wards and part of an eighth, while the exact number of duplicate ballots was still not disclosed.
What Green Bay Says Happened
City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys has said the spring mistake came from a label problem, not an intent to break the rules. In earlier responses, the city said an employee thought a batch of absentee ballots had not yet been prepared for mailing, which led to the 152 duplicate ballots.
For the August primary, Jeffreys again blamed a printing error and said only one ballot per eligible voter would be counted. City and television reports said affected voters would receive letters telling them to destroy one of the two ballots and return only one.
Why the Case Has Bigger Stakes
This dispute is about more than one city’s mailing mistake. Wisconsin election officials and other state systems rely on tracking requests, issued ballots, returned ballots, and counted ballots to keep absentee voting clean. The concern is that repeated errors can weaken trust even when officials say no double vote was counted.
The fight also shows how quickly an election problem turns political. The Republican Party of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Republicans have pushed for investigations, while some media coverage has framed the matter as a glitch or an administrative slip. That split matters because voters want proof that the system works, not just promises that it should.
There is still one major gap in the public record: officials have not released the exact August total, and the WEC memo is still described as a draft rather than a final ruling. Until those details are public, the city’s explanation and the commission staff’s legal view will remain in tension.
Sources:
townhall.com, wislawjournal.com, youtube.com, pro.stateaffairs.com, myvote.wi.gov, instagram.com, wispolitics.com, electionlab.mit.edu