In the April election in Presque Isle, 100 miles north of Wausau, 76% of the town’s 649 registered voters cast ballots — the highest percentage of any town in the county.
In August, Vilas County Circuit Judge MarthaMilanowski threw out the result and ordered a do-over election after finding that two absentee ballots were cast illegally. One was by a voter in Illinois who had voted in the past in Wisconsin but hadn’t registered in Wisconsin for the spring election. The proper procedure wasn’t followed for the other: Walters had sent that voter a ballot before receiving his request by mail.
Walters said she didn’t realize the part-time Illinois resident wasn’t properly registered. She said she sent the other voter an absentee ballot because she had been in contact with him and didn’t realize she should not have sent it before receiving his official request by mail.
Milanowski also found that three absentee ballot envelopes didn’t include witness addresses, including one Walters had signed in her role as town clerk, and that the town’s Board of Canvassers didn’t follow the correct procedure for the recount, which requires reviewing absentee ballot envelopes.