The city clerk of Green Bay, Wisconsin, a key battleground state that could decide the winner of the 2024 presidential election, acknowledged that the city is not “strictly” following state election law when it comes to Election Day registration. But claims to comply will be better going forward.
Last month, the Public Interest Law Fund complaint The Wisconsin Elections Commission filed a complaint against Celestine Jeffries, who became Green Bay city clerk shortly after the controversial 2020 election. According to the complaint, Jeffries regularly failed to report people who registered to vote on Election Day but apparently did not live at their designated addresses.
“It’s not often that elected officials admit they don’t know the law.”
According to a report from federalist, Wisconsin is one of 20 states and the District of Columbia that allows Election Day voter registration. The complaint states that Wisconsin residents who register to vote on Election Day must provide proof of residence before voting and “document that they have resided at their residence for at least 28 consecutive days immediately preceding this election.” must be confirmed.”
After the election, the state will mail a postcard to everyone who registered to vote on Election Day as part of the state-mandated post-election audit. Undeliverable postcards will be automatically delivered to the city clerk’s office where the individual is registered to vote.
For each undeliverable postcard received, city officials change the elector on the voter registration list from “voter” to “ineligible,” alert the individual about the change, and notify the county district attorney and board of elections to You are responsible for reporting a person’s name. A complaint was asserted.
But “Mr. Jeffries failed in this aspect of his work at every turn,” Federalist argued, citing the complaint.
Indeed, the complaint shows that Jeffries has repeatedly failed to report hundreds of electors as required by law. For example, on Election Day 2020, 3,497 Wisconsin electors registered to vote. Of those, 170 of his postcards were deemed undeliverable and Greene sent him to the Bay City Clerk’s Office. However, the complaint states, “The Green Bay City Clerk’s Office revoked the zero registrants and referred the zero registrants to the district attorney.”
The complaint says this was the case for the 2021 election, the 2022 primary and general election, and the 2023 spring election. During that time, Jeffries’ office received dozens of postcards addressed to Election Day registrants, but it appears none of them reported them to the district attorney, invalidating most of the electors.
“If Clerk Jeffries receives an election day registration postcard that is undeliverable, her current procedure is to record the postcard as undeliverable in WizVote and take no further action,” the complaint states. It is stated in.
amid complaints responseIn the document, filed late last month by Green Bay Assistant City Attorney Lindsey Masser, Jeffries acknowledged that he did not comply with state election laws as much as he should have, but blamed his failures on malice and not malice. He claimed that it was because he did not know the law.
“Secretary Jeffries admits that he did not strictly comply with the statutory requirements…However, his failure to do so was inadvertent, due to a lack of awareness of the statutory requirements, and that he knowingly violated state law.” This is not the result of any violation,” the response signed by Jeffries said.
Mr. Jeffries is committed to doing better in the future, respondents said. “Upon receiving this complaint, Clerk Jeffries began developing a plan to address future postcard bounces that comply with both statutory requirements and guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission.” intends to follow both in all future elections.
Lauren Bowman Biss, communications director for the Public Interest Legal Fund, called Jeffries’ actions “unbelievable.” “The public needs to have trust and confidence in the officials they elect,” she says.
“It’s not often that elected officials admit they don’t know the law,” Bowman said. “…This doesn’t just affect the people of Green Bay and Wisconsin. We all want confidence in our elections, we want the rules to be followed. In Green Bay. it’s not.”
“This is bad.”
Mr. Jeffries did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
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