Clerk says names of write-ins were removed before voting started

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Editor

A claim of electioneering in the City of Burlington is just the latest fallout in the wake of the spring elections.

According to a source who requested anonymity, the names of the two write-in candidates – Roger Koldeway for Burlington Area School District School Board and for John Ekes for City Council – were posted at various city poling places on Election Day April 7.

However, City Clerk Diahnn Halbach said Tuesday that the names were taken down before the election started and that the entire situation was a miscommunication.

“What’s so strange is that nothing was posted once the election started,” Halbach said.

Halbach explained that poll workers initially posted the names in order to let voters have the proper spellings for the two write-in candidates, since she was told the spelling had to be exact.

“It wasn’t about anything except having the right spelling,” Halbach said.

However, before the polls opened April 7, she said she had her deputy clerk call the Racine County Clerk’s office – and was told to take the names down.

“Anything that was up was taken back down,” Halbach said. “There shouldn’t have been anything there.”

Reid Magney of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board said that the group generally advises clerks to not even post the spellings at city hall before the election.

“Not posting them protects them from being accused of electioneering,” Magney said.

Ironically, Magney also clarified another point – the one involving a spelling of a name. Names, he said, don’t need to be spelled exactly.

“It comes down to voter intent,” he said.

Magney also said it essentially didn’t matter at this point. Any uncounted ballots are a moot point, as the date for filing a recount has passed.

Ekes was running as the lone candidate for the open aldermanic position in District 1. Koldeway chose, after initially deciding not to run for School Board, to file as a registered write-in candidate so that the votes people had pledged to him would, in fact, be counted.

The School Board election saw newcomer Kevin Bird and incumbent Phil Ketterhagen elected – Ketterhagen by a slim 17-vote margin over Barry Schmaling.

Schmaling confirmed last week that he would not seek a recount, feeling that the likelihood of an 18-vote swing in his favor was slim and that the recount would be a waste of money.