Complaint filed with the Wis Election Commission against Kronenwetter

On November 9, 2024By Pranco

KRONENWETTER, Wis. (WSAW) – A voter in Kronenwetter is accusing the village clerk of obstructing an observer during the public testing of voting machines ahead of Election Day.

Daniel Kindelberger filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Thursday. The committee received the complaint and surrendered the village until November 27 to respond in writing.

7 Investigators sent an email to the clerk, but she referred the response to the village president, Chris Voll, citing “company policy.” Voll responded via email: “The village just learned of the complaint yesterday. We are investigating the allegations surrounding the complaint. When we have our answer ready, we will send it to the WEC.”

Kindelberger based his complaint on email exchanges between Dan Joling, a Kronenwetter voter and former village police chief, and clerk Bobbi Birk-LaBarge. He believes that Joling, as an observer, should have been allowed to video record the public tests of the voting machines and that the clerk misquoted the law that does not allow observers to record videos at the polls.

“Her email states that she stopped Mr. Joling from recording in accordance with statute 7.41(1). The statute clearly refers to a polling place where votes are cast, and not to a public inspection of the tabulation machine,” Kindelberger wrote in the complaint.

Kindelberger also claims that there was no proper public notice of the public tabulation tests. The village posted on its Facebook page on October 25 and 27 about the public testing on October 28. Kindelberger also noted that it was posted on the village bulletin board, which is located at the entrance to the village. However, Kindelberger claimed it was not placed in the newspaper as required Wis.Stat. 5.84(1).

He referred to A WEC press release that confirms that the testing is a public meeting. He stated in his complaint: “Since the WEC does not specify otherwise, it is reasonable to extend the rights defined in other public meetings to this public meeting testing the voting tabulation machine.” Kindelberger then refers to a law under “open meetings of government agencies” this requires the government body to accommodate anyone who wants to record, film or photograph the meeting, unless this would harm the meeting or the rights of participants.

Kindelberger accused Birk-LaBarge of harboring a grudge against Joling, citing her removal of Joling from the list of election inspectors, as stated in a previous WEC complaint against the village. That complaint from March has not yet been completed.

The WEC determined another complaint filed on October 24 was not properly filed because the complainant (the superintendent of the Mosinee School District) did not live in the village as required by law.

Kindelberger’s complaint concluded: “In any event, I would have liked to see Mr. Joiling’s video, along with any questions he had. The village secretary’s refusal to allow him to record the public test was an infringement of my right as a voter, together with the increasing suspicion that the Kronenwetter elections are not being conducted fairly.”

The email exchange

The email exchange refers to an earlier conversation in which Joling questioned the ability to count absentee ballots in Kronenwetter due to wrinkles in the ballot. He contacted the host of NHPR’s “All Things Considered” and asked about her reporting of ballots in Windham, New Hampshire and included her response in his email to Birk-LaBarge.

“I see that there is a tabulator certification on Monday and I was wondering if this matter could also be checked to ensure that folding of the ballots does not affect the outcome,” Joling requested on October 27.

Birk-LaBarge responded shortly afterwards with a detailed explanation of the process. She began, “I understand your concern in reading that article. However, voting specialists say a fold in a candidate’s name would not invalidate a vote cast. It is almost impossible to design a ballot where the folds do not pass through the name areas. The DS200 machines we use do not suffer from folds.”

She further explained the system, adding that if a ballot cannot be scanned properly, it is manually tallied and included in the totals, otherwise the ballot is recreated and scanned. She added that several folds had previously been tested in the machines during public testing. She encouraged people to observe the process during the public process and explained how the results are vetted by the city, county and state before becoming official totals.

Joling thanked her for the information. The email conversation continued the next day, with Birk-LaBarge responding to Joling’s verbal request during the public tests.

“Today during the public machine tests, you requested that a video be recorded of the chief election inspectors entering the test ballots into the calculators. I explained that this was not possible because it was a state law that prohibited this action.”

Birk-LaBarge supplied it Wis.Stat. 7.41(1) and the WEC manual with reference to pages 81 and 83.

“As you watched, your continued challenge to leadership and questioning of the leadership of the Chief Election Inspectors became a distraction and disrupted our orderly process of publicly testing our voting equipment. That is why you received a warning from me when the village secretary authorized you to do this,” she continued. “I want to thank you for not continuing those distractions and challenges to our Chief Election Inspector.”