MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The mailing of about 2,200 duplicate ballots in Madison, Wisconsin’s predominantly Democratic capital, has led a Republican congressman to falsely suggest that the clerk lied about the presence of barcodes on the ballots themselves.
Ballots in Wisconsin do not have barcodes. Mail-in ballot return envelopes do have barcodes so the voter can track their ballot to make sure it was received. The barcodes also allow election officials to verify that the same voter does not vote in person on Election Day.
An initial statement from Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl on Monday did not specify that it was the envelopes, not the ballots, that contained the barcodes. The statement posted on the clerk’s website was later updated to specify that the barcodes were on the envelopes, not the ballots.
Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump whose northern Wisconsin district does not include Madison, posted a photo of a mail-in ballot on the social media platform X to show that it lacked a barcode.
“My office has proof that there is no barcode on the actual ballots,” Tiffany posted on Wednesday. “Here is a picture of the mail ballots – NO BARCODE.”
He also called for an investigation.
By Thursday morning, his post had already been viewed more than 1 million times.
Tiffany later took credit for the clerk changing the wording on her original statement.
“Why do they keep editing their statements and press releases?” Tiffany wrote.
Madison city spokesman Dylan Brogan said Thursday that he had edited the statement’s wording for clarity before Tiffany questioned it by “splitting sentences apart.”
“The city regularly updates its website to provide as much clarity as possible,” Brogan said.
He called the sending of duplicate mail-in ballots “a simple mistake that we immediately corrected and will not impact the election.”
“There are safeguards in place,” Brogan said. “The system worked.”
Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, criticized Tiffany on X.
“I can’t tell if this is just a deep ignorance or a deliberate attempt to stoke outrage,” she posted. “Both are bad btw.”
The clerk said in her response to Tiffany that 2,215 duplicate ballots had been mailed out before the error was discovered on Monday. No duplicate ballots were returned, Witzel-Behl said. If a ballot is received and the envelope barcode is scanned, a second ballot that is returned will not be counted, she said.
“I just want to say that elections are run by people and human error happens from time to time,” she wrote to Tiffany. “When errors occur, we acknowledge them, correct them as quickly as possible, and are transparent about them — just as we have done here.”
The uproar in battleground Wisconsin comes amid intense scrutiny over how elections are run, particularly in swing states that will likely determine the winner of the presidential election. Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020. Nearly four years later, conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and false claims of widespread fraud persist. Trump continues to claim he won that election, despite no evidence of widespread fraud, as he seeks a return to the White House.
President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in Wisconsin survived two recounts ordered by Trump, including one involving the city of Madison, an independent audit, a review by a Republican law firm and numerous lawsuits.
