GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Green Bay officials say human error by City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys led to duplicate absentee ballots being mailed to voters ahead of the April and August 2026 elections.
In a response submitted Friday to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the city detailed how duplicate ballots were created and outlined new procedures designed to prevent voters from casting more than one ballot in the Aug. 11 primary.
According to the city, duplicate ballots for the April election stemmed from a batch of 152 absentee ballot requests processed in March. Officials said Jeffreys either failed to file the original label printouts properly or mistakenly reprinted the entire batch, causing duplicate ballot labels to be added into absentee ballot packets a second time.
The city said a separate error occurred in June while preparing absentee ballots for the August primary. Officials said Jeffreys believed some voter labels were missing from a batch of printed labels and reprinted pages from the file, which later resulted in duplicate absentee ballots being mailed.
The city said WisVote was the only software used in both incidents and that no third-party vendors were involved.
After a voter reported receiving duplicate ballots June 27, Jeffreys notified Mayor Eric Genrich and the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The city later issued a public notice and mailed letters to voters who may have received duplicate ballots.
To prevent duplicate voting, the Clerk’s Office said it implemented additional safeguards July 13, including expanded ballot tracking, multiple envelope reviews, ballot custody logs, voter-by-voter comparisons and additional cross-checking through WisVote.
The city said election staff is also required to immediately notify the clerk if duplicate ballot envelopes are detected.
