Green Bay city clerk Celestine Jeffreys was placed on administrative leave Thursday while investigations are ongoing into the city’s elections. The Wisconsin Elections Commission ordered an investigation into the Green Bay City Clerk’s office after duplicate ballots were issued for the two most recent elections.

Election Investigation

The city has admitted it sent out 152 duplicate ballots for the April election. The city is “reasonably certain” 244 extra ballots were recently sent out for the August election, according to an email from the city attorney to city council members.

The WEC’s decision requires Jeffreys to submit a detailed explanation by July 31 on how only one ballot will be tabulated for the electors who were mailed two ballots. Jeffreys also must submit by Aug. 14 a plan to ensure duplicate ballots are not sent out again, and a detailed explanation by July 31 of how the duplicate ballots error occurred for the April and August elections.

“I’m really concerned that first of all it happened once, OK, but then for the exact same error to happen a second time weeks later is unconscionable,” said Ann Jacobs, a Wisconsin Elections commissioner.

Jacobs says a mechanism was put into the WisVote System a few years ago to prevent duplicate absentee labels and ballots from being printed and encourages clerks to use the system.

In a statement, city officials said there is also an ongoing internal review into the clerk’s office. The statement continued: Elections are a critical piece of the work we perform at the City. While we have no concerns with the security or propriety of the electoral process, these errors in the Clerk’s Office are unacceptable.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.