When Kathy Shurts learned of absentee ballot inconsistencies in the 2024 general election and the 2026 spring elections, she was horrified.
As a poll worker, she understands that sometimes not everything goes according to plan.
“Election days are so hectic, and [poll workers] work so hard to make sure every vote happens,” Shurts said. “But we’re all human, and mistakes happen.”
Election security is under the microscope of Madison residents, given problems in recent elections. After criticism from state officials, Madison administrators said they’ve implemented new safeguards to guarantee ballots are handled appropriately.
But the real test will occur with today’s election.
Shurts, a Madison absentee voter herself, reflects how residents view the city’s struggle to run the absentee ballot system. In 2024, a failure by the city clerk’s office to follow proper ballot transportation protocols led 193 absentee ballots to never be counted. On top of that, officials waited weeks to notify anybody about the issue. These shortcomings in part led then-Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl to resign.
Now, as the 2026 midterms have arrived, the city said it is more prepared than ever to get absentee counting right.
One of the biggest changes coming to the fall election cycle is that all absentee ballots will be transported in clear containers with chain-of-custody laws posted on each container to give clear directions to election officials.
Acting Madison Clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde, who is filling in for Clerk Lydia McComas while she’s on maternity leave, says this change allows poll workers and officials to quickly compare how many ballots they’re expecting to how many they actually have.
“If there is a discrepancy there, they can communicate with our office early in the day, so we have time to find out what is causing that discrepancy, or if ballots got accidentally misdirected to a different poll site,” Bernarde said. “So that way, you know, every eligible ballot that we have can get counted.”
Additionally, in response to the late ballots in April, Bernarde said, the city has looked at routes for couriers — the election officials responsible for delivering ballots to the clerk’s office. The city also established maximum and minimum times for couriers to stay at pickup locations so their routes can be tracked more easily.
Bernarde sees both of these examples as crucial steps for “improving our communication, improving our time deadlines, so that way we give ourselves a little more breathing room to minimize, correct and address those mistakes.”
According to Bernarde, the city of Madison tried using both of these new processes during August primary elections and successfully transported every absentee ballot to its correct polling site.
“I feel like that was a good test run for our office, knowing that we’re going to have a much higher volume of absentee ballots and participation in November,” Bernarde said.
To Bernarde and the staff responsible for overseeing Madison’s elections, transparency is the ultimate goal. Anyone is allowed to observe polling sites both on Election Day and during early voting, which ran from Oct. 20 until Oct. 31. The city also held public testing of its election equipment on Oct. 24 to ensure everything was running properly. And, voters can always track the status of their absentee ballot at myvote.wi.gov to see when their ballot is returned to the clerk’s office and counted.
“We have put in a lot of effort to strengthen our processes, and we’re still continuing to continuously improve, and we really want to work to rebuild that trust with Madison voters,” Bernarde said.
“I’d like to tell you I’ve never made a mistake, but that would be a lie,” Shurts said. “But what are you going to do about it so it doesn’t happen again? And I think they’ve taken good steps to show that that won’t happen again.”
The state of Wisconsin has historically used paper ballots instead of traditional digital voting equipment to mitigate these mistakes in the first place.
In an election protection forum put on by the Dane County League of Women Voters on Sept. 29, Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell noted that Wisconsin mandates a paper trail for every ballot to ensure that machine software cannot silently alter election outcomes. It also gives election officials the ability to manually audit machine counts at any time.
McDonell said it would be helpful to introduce electronic poll books to the absentee system to have multiple verification options. In his opinion, it would speed up the review process and fix one of the biggest problems with the all-paper system.
“That would allow us… to be able to have those reports immediately saying, ‘No, these were received and they were banked in and they should be there,’” McDonell said. “And we know it immediately, not two weeks later.”
One thing that hasn’t seen significant change is the number of poll workers across the city. According to records obtained from the city of Madison, it has distributed 3,269 available shift assignments to poll workers for November’s election cycle. This is actually down more than 10% from the number of shifts assigned for the 2022 midterms.
Instead, Bernarde said officials have added an absentee ballot lead to the clerk’s office and are working to add another absentee lead position for the office’s polling site. She said it will be helpful to have a dedicated staff member who is specifically trained to fully understand the absentee process along with communication requirements if any issues arise.
And even though issues do happen, Shurts says staff members go above and beyond to make sure they’re getting things right. She recalls leaving for an international trip during this year’s February elections, but she still hadn’t received her ballot.
She contacted the clerk who happily emailed her a ballot and instructions on how to return it, and one of the stores in the Phoenix airport was even willing to give her a free envelope because it was to return a ballot.
“Everybody values and knows the importance of voting,” Shurts said. “And they were just so kind. I said, ‘I’m happy to pay you.’ [They said,] ‘No, it’s for voting.’ All righty then.”
Shurts, for the record, will still vote absentee this November. She says understanding the background on why issues happen helps her keep faith in the integrity of the absentee system.
“I have ultimate faith in the absentee system, not only in Madison, but across the state,” Shurts said. “Our clerks are amazing. They really do an incredible job getting our elections right, keeping our ballots safe, keeping things secured… I am very confident.”
