Marathon County town clerk convicted of felony election charge

By Shereen Siewert | Wausau Pilot & Review

A Marathon County town clerk who illegally signed a voter’s name on a poll list will spend two years on probation and cannot participate in administering future elections after a nearly 90-minute hearing Tuesday.

Mary Beth Gebert, 66, faced two felony charges in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election: misconduct in office and altering a poll list as an election official. Gebert, who is still listed as the Town of Bergen Clerk, also faced a misdemeanor charge of obstructing an officer in a case filed Jan. 12, 2022 in Marathon County Circuit Court.

As part of a plea agreement all but one charge – altering a poll list as an election official – were dismissed but read into the record at sentencing. Attorneys on both sides made arguments with their sentencing recommendations before Circuit Judge Suzanne O’Neill, after which she issued a withheld sentence for Gebert on the felony charge, to which she pleaded guilty.

In a withheld sentence, defendants can be forced to return to court and be sentenced for their original crime if they are not successful on probation.

Investigators began their probe into Gebert’s actions in September 2020 after a complaint that a Marathon County voter’s name showed up on election rolls twice.

But the woman told a special investigator that she voted just once, in Edgar, and was unaware that her name was on the Town of Bergen voting roll prior to being contacted. Gebert eventually admitted signing the woman’s name in what appeared to be a random selectoin on the Town of Bergen voter log to ensure the numbers matched after polls closed.

Poll workers from that day were allegedly aware of the false signature and one said Gebert’s actions were the result of “exhausted people at the end of the day making a poor decision,” according to the investigator’s report.

A plea agreement was reached in November that called for an argued sentencing. In addition to probation, Gebert will pay a $1,000 fine and undergo counseling if her supervising agent recommends doing so.