Green Bay City Hall
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay’s elections officials deny allegations they mishandled a City Council recount in April.
Steven Campbell lost the District 6 aldermanic race by 15 votes, and asked for a recount. He still lost. In a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, David VanderLeest, Campbell’s representative at the count, raised several issues. He asked for the results to be nullified and new election ordered.
In a 19-page response, posted Wednesday on the WEC’s website, the city maintains it handled the recount properly. Among the city’s assertions:
“Mistakes occur, as they did here. And the Board responded as the law required—it made an independent determination that, despite this informality, the available evidence showed that the ballot bags were secured and, therefore, the ballots they contained represent the will of the electorate in those wards. To have done otherwise would have violated the command of Wis. Stat. 5.01(1) and disenfranchised 381 voters, representing more than half of the relevant electorate for this election.”
“While a matching serial number on the EL-104 may be one piece of evidence that tampering did not occur, it does not follow that the absence of such numbers is evidence that tampering did occur. As described, the Board made independent findings based upon available evidence that the ballots were secure. VanderLeest does not, and cannot, explain how these findings were erroneous.”
“Although VanderLeest purported to file this complaint under Wis. Stat. 5.06, in its substance and requested relief the complaint is clearly an attempt to relitigate the recount Because VanderLeest is not entitled to appeal the recount (only Campbell could have done so), and because any such appeal would be untimely at this point, the Commission should dismiss the complaint.”
“Apart from the massive problems that would stem from disenfranchising 381 voters in a contest in which a total of 694 voters were cast, VanderLeest’s request that the Commission overturn an election is not available. Indeed, no such relief could 17 ever be sought under Wisconsin law In other words, if aggrieved candidates—not third parties like VanderLeest—want to remedy allegations of tampering during a recount, they must do so by appealing the recount’s results. VanderLeest’s request that the Commission use Wis. Stat. 5.06 to throw out election results six months after the election and recount is as unlawful as it is unreasonable.”
The city requests the WEC to dismiss the complaint, and order VanderLeest to pay a $500 fine for filing a frivolous complaint.
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