WEC: Green Bay city clerk should not have accepted absentee ballots returned on behalf of a sick voter in April 2022

GREEN BAY - The Wisconsin Elections Commission resolved a complaint and said it found probable cause the city clerk violated state late in the April 2022 election.

The commission issued its decision Wednesday, saying city clerk Celestine Jeffreys likely violated state law when she accepted absentee ballots returned to her office on behalf of someone who was sick “on at least some occasions"; state statutes say a voter can ask for assistance returning a ballot due to a disability.

“Sickness alone may or may not constitute a disability, and thus it cannot be a qualification to receive ballot return assistance,” the decision states.

According to the complaint, the complainant and two other people said the clerk's office accepted "multiple" ballots from a voter five times. How many ballots they allegedly accepted is not clear in the complaint.

"The number of ballots is unclear in their complaint. Are we talking about 100? No. Are we talking about a dozen? I don't know because they are unclear," Jeffreys told the Press-Gazette.

The clerk’s office said that statutes don’t include a method to validate that someone returning an absentee ballot is doing so on behalf of another voter with a disability.

The Elections Commission said Jeffreys’ office needs to amend their policy to match with the law.

Jeffreys said the city did that following the April election in August 2022.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay clerk amends policy after WEC decision in April 2022 complaint