GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- It's a topic that has even Green Bay officials divided.
"Too many untruths have been said and written to begin to count," Mayor Eric Genrich said during a Tuesday night city council session. "And the wanton disregard for facts displayed by people who should no better has been shocking, but I guess that's the state of our politics."
In a heated, contentious meeting, the Green Bay Common Council brought forth a resolution that aims to support the city's 'Full Confidence in the Administration of Green Bay’s August and November 2020 Elections.'
After discussing in a closed session, alders decided to shelf the resolution until the next council session. This comes one week after Republican lawmakers reissued a call for Genrich's resignation.
"Nothing of human creation is perfect, but our election was pretty darn close," the Green Bay mayor said.
Republican Senator Roger Roth of Appleton claims the mayor used an outside consultant and grant funding to sway the presidential election.
"It seems to us that the mayor of Green Bay turned over to an outside partisan group backed by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg [and] turned over keys to the facility where they brought the ballots on Election Day to be counted after the election," Roth said. "They were able to buy access for 1.6 million dollars, that ought to concern everybody."
But Democratic State Representative Kristina Shelton of Green Bay disagrees.
"If you saw something that was concerning, you should report it," Shelton said. "But then that needs to go through the process of determining if a law was broken. And we have just not seen any evidence of that at all."
Some Republican lawmakers say a series of emails proves an outside consultant had too much access to ballots.
"There are some serious questions that need to be answered in Green Bay, some serious irregularities and some unethical behavior," Roth said. "That's why I continue to renew my call for Mayor Genrich and his former Chief of Staff Celestine Jeffreys to resign."
But Democrats like Shelton reaffirm Genrich's handling of the election. The mayor still says the November election was a 'beautiful thing.'
"Wisconsin has some of the most stringent election law and electoral processes in the country," Shelton said. "I have not seen any evidence at this time of any wrongdoing based on election law."
