{"id":19598,"date":"2025-07-18T18:38:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/19598\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T18:38:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:38:19","slug":"madison-clerk-held-cookie-extravaganza-as-ballots-sat-uncounted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/19598\/","title":{"rendered":"Madison clerk held \u2018cookie extravaganza\u2019 as ballots sat uncounted."},"content":{"rendered":"

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin\u2019s free newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission expressed alarm Thursday at how much time former Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl spent on vacation while a crisis was erupting in her office: the discovery of 193 missing ballots from the November 2024 election that never got counted.<\/p>\n

In its 400-page investigative report, finalized at a meeting by a 5-1 vote, the commission said that Witzel-Behl began her vacation in mid-November, days after the election, \u201cand then had little to do with the supervision of her office until almost a month later.\u201d No staffers took responsibility during the extended absence, the commission chair, Democrat Ann Jacobs, complained before the vote. The missing ballots were not reported to the commission until mid-December. <\/p>\n

Records obtained by Votebeat provide some clarity into what Witzel-Behl was doing around the time: baking thousands of cookies and calling on her staff to help deliver them. <\/p>\n

Most of that activity began after Dec. 2, when the second batch of uncounted ballots was found. These records have not been publicly reported, and were not included in the investigative report finalized Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is remarkable,\u201d Republican Commissioner Don Millis said when Votebeat showed him some of the findings. \u201cNone of the witnesses we deposed disclosed her cookie staycation.\u201d<\/p>\n

After approving the report, the commission voted 4-2 to delay action on proposed corrective orders after city and county officials argued that the requirements were overly specific and exceeded state law. The city now has until Aug. 7 to provide a more complete response to the recommendations, and a follow-up meeting has been scheduled for Aug. 15.<\/p>\n

Witzel-Behl didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

\u2018Cookie extravaganza\u2019 featuring \u2018100 different types\u2019<\/p>\n

Emails show that Witzel-Behl took time off for all or part of 17 days between Nov. 11 and Dec. 6 and said, according to an event invite, that part of it was for \u201cdevoting a staycation to baking.\u201d<\/a> Beginning in November, she invited city staff and election officials<\/a> in Madison to what some staff called a \u201ccookie extravaganza\u201d<\/a> held on Dec. 7, a Saturday, to help decorate cookies and take some home for their families. She baked \u201c100 different types<\/a>\u201d of cookies, the invite said.<\/p>\n

According to the commission, Witzel-Behl knew about the first batch of ballots on Nov. 12. That was well before the cookie event.<\/p>\n

The second batch of uncounted ballots was discovered on Dec. 2, by office staff<\/a>. Witzel-Behl was out of the office that Monday and for the rest of that week. She told the commission she learned of the second batch of ballots on Dec. 10<\/a>. \u201cWhile on vacation, she did not inquire of her staff whether there were absentee ballots in the bag,\u201d the report reads. <\/p>\n

On Dec. 10, she sent an email to three staffers, including Deputy Clerk Jim Verbick, saying she\u2019d reserved three cars for cookie deliveries. \u201cMaybe each of you can make at least one cookie delivery to a library,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

She also arranged additional deliveries and rented more cars for later the following week, an email sent Dec. 13 shows<\/a>. \u201cWe still have several packages of cookies, so feel free to pick a few agencies for another delivery,\u201d she suggested<\/a> to 16 staffers across her office and other city departments the same day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had assumed \u2014 obviously erroneously \u2014 the clerk was vacationing in some faraway place,\u201d Millis, the commissioner, told Votebeat, denouncing Witzel-Behl for not personally managing the discovery of the uncounted ballots. <\/p>\n

The clerk\u2019s staff didn\u2019t tell the commission about the missing ballots until Dec. 18. By that point, the state had already certified the election and the missing ballots couldn\u2019t have counted.<\/p>\n

Vote smart(er) with Votebeat Wisconsin’s newsletter.<\/p>\n

Get the latest news on voting and elections in the Badger State delivered to your inbox for free.<\/p>\n

\u2018She worked her ass off\u2019 \u2014 on the cookies<\/p>\n

Jacobs said before the vote that she was surprised by Witzel-Behl\u2019s \u201ccomplete lack of action\u201d during the relevant time period. Marge Bostelmann, a Republican appointee on the commission and the former longtime Green Lake county clerk, said that even if she had been on vacation in such a situation as a county clerk, she would have remained accessible if urgent questions arose.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Bob Spindell, a Republican, was the lone dissenter on the vote to approve the report, saying he didn\u2019t want Witzel-Behl to be \u201ccrucified.\u201d<\/p>\n

One person close to the Madison Clerk\u2019s Office, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told Votebeat that the task of making cookies and arranging deliveries \u201cbecame all-consuming\u201d for Witzel-Behl. \u201cYou could see how she was not focused on getting through reconciliation or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some people, baking is calming,\u201d that person continued. \u201cIt seemed like she needed a break. But then she worked her ass off [on the cookies]. It was a huge operation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Between early and mid-December, city employees from a wide variety of departments thanked Witzel-Behl for her cookies. It\u2019s not clear how many cookies she ultimately made.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 16, one person in the city\u2019s transportation department sent a clerk\u2019s office staffer an email asking, \u201cAre these cookies for the entire first floor? The entire building? The entire universe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Alexander at ashur@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[18062,23,18054,18053,18060,18059,18055,18058,1070,17776,3,18061,18051,18052,21,19,22,20,25,24,18050,18056,18057,8647,18049,1745],"class_list":["post-19598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-absentee-ballot-dropbox","tag-america","tag-ballot","tag-ballots","tag-city-clerk-meribeth-witzel-behl-and-municipal-clerk-taylor-wall","tag-counting","tag-drop-box","tag-election-workers","tag-elections","tag-madison","tag-news","tag-polling-station","tag-primaries","tag-primary-election","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-votebeat","tag-voters","tag-votes","tag-voting","tag-wis","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}