Republican Wisconsin congressman falsely suggests city clerk was lying about absentee ballots

Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The mailing of about 2,200 duplicate absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s heavily Democratic capital city of Madison has led a Republican member of Congress to falsely suggest that the clerk was lying about the presence of barcodes on the ballots themselves. An initial statement on Monday from Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl did not specify that it was the envelopes, not the ballots, that contain the barcodes. The statement posted on the clerk’s website was later updated to specify that the barcodes were on the envelopes, not the ballots. Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany posted a picture of an absentee ballot on the social platform X to show there was no barcode and suggested the clerk was lying.