GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — The Wisconsin Election Commission has authorized an investigation into the Green Bay City Clerk’s office and City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys, after duplicate ballots were sent out to some voters for a second time this year.
The City of Green Bay shared a statement on June 28, saying that some voters in wards 11a, 12a, 37a, 44, 45, 46, 47, and part of ward 43 may have received duplicate ballots. Officials said the issue stemmed from a label-printing error and that impacted voters will receive a letter with instructions to return only one ballot. A similar error occurred in April, when 152 Green Bay voters received duplicate ballots for the spring election due to a printing error.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin submitted a complaint for the April incident and asked the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) to investigate the error. After the second incident in June, the party called on the WEC again for an investigation.
“Green Bay voters deserve reliable elections, not repeated failures that undermine trust,” WisGOP Communications Director Anika Rickard said after the June incident. “WEC must hold the clerk accountable, investigate, and ensure these issues are fixed before November.”
Both the April and June errors were discussed by WEC at their quarterly meeting at the state Capitol on Thursday, July 9. The commission authorized an investigation.
“I am really concerned that, first of all, it happened once. But for the exact same error to happen a second time, weeks later, it is unconscionable,” said WEC commissioner Ann Jacobs at the July 9 meeting.
As part of the investigation, Jeffreys and the city clerk’s office must explain how the errors happened twice and submit a plan to prevent future occurrences.
Further decision-making on the issue is delayed until a future WEC meeting.
Jeffreys previously told the NBC 26 newsroom that she regrets the error.
“Our voters deserve clear, accurate and reliable election administration — these are the standards the city sets and that I set for my office,” Jeffreys said.
Voters can track their ballots at any time ahead of the 2026 partisan primary at myvote.wi.gov.
