Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from Kody Hart, who did not submit his statement until after publication.
Damakant Jayshi
A Wausau candidate seeking a seat on the Marathon County Board of Supervisors who challenged a ruling that would have kept her off the ballot emerged victorious and is back in the race for the seat.
Jo Ann Egelkrout filed a petition with the Wisconsin Elections Commission after County Clerk Kim Trueblood determined that she fell short of the required number of nomination signatures in her candidacy filing and took her off the ballot.
In a nutshell, two signatures disallowed by the clerk were done inappropriately, the WEC ruled, which means Egelkrout’s name will now appear in the race to challenge incumbent Dist. 3 Supervisor Kody Hart, who is a deputy clerk for the city of Wausau.
Last week, the state elections commission asked the county clerk to accept the challenger’s sworn affidavit with two additional signatures, which she had done on Jan. 5, three days after the filing deadline had passed.
In her January affidavit submitted to Trueblood, Egelkrout said she addressed challenges related to four signatures that had been disqualified and submitted 50 signatures before the deadline. Two challenges were filed by Egelkrout’s opponent, while two challenges were launched by the clerk’s office.
In its determination, the WEC said a “violation of law or abuse of discretion occurred with relation to Clerk Trueblood’s procedural actions” and directed Trueblood to accept Egelkrout’s affidavit.
The elections commission said that Trueblood’s acceptance of Mr. Hart’s unverified challenge to Egelkrout’s nomination papers was also contrary to law, but found that did not affect the outcome of the ballot decision.
In a letter to the editor published this week Egelkrout said she believes Trueblood acted in good faith but accused her Dist. 3 opponent, Hart, of using unfair tactics to keep her off the ballot, echoing accusations made in January after her name was removed from the ballot.
“His partisanship may be acceptable in his role of County Supervisor but as Wausau’s Deputy City Clerk, much more integrity is required,” Egelkrout wrote.
Hart pushed back.
“It calls into question the character of someone who would attack the livelihood of their opponent,” he told this newspaper. “I, myself, wouldn’t go after someone’s job and I think it shows a real difference between my opponent and I.”
Egelkrout said she originally submitted 60 signatures, not 62, to Trueblood on the last day that signatures could be collected. This would be Tuesday, Jan. 2, the deadline to file candidacy paperwork. According to the challenger, the clerk disallowed 12, and notified her “quickly enough, that I was able to get the 2 more, making 50 total.”
Trueblood said the Elections Commission found that she correctly struck off 13 invalid signatures from a total of 64 that she had submitted on Jan. 2. The clerk said she struck two additional signatures because they had no residential address accompanying the signatures, pointing out that a state statute requires the signer of a nomination form to include the street and number of his or her residential address. Then on Jan. 5, three days after the nomination paper filing deadline, Egelkrout provided an affidavit to Trueblood identifying an address for the two additional signatures.
The clerk said the affidavit did not indicate how Egelkrout, “who was not the circulator of the nomination papers in question, had personal knowledge of the addresses subsequently provided,” which is required by state statute.
“Accordingly, I declined to overturn her findings relative to striking these two additional signatures,” she said.
Hart did not comment on the matter.
In a letter to Wausau Pilot, Egelkrout initially stated her concern that absentee ballots could have been sent without her name appearing, giving her a disadvantage in the race. But Trueblood pushed back against that claim and said that no absentee ballots have gone out that include County Board races.
“They haven’t even gone to the printer,” Trueblood said. The spring election is on April 2.
Trueblood said that the only ballots that have been sent are presidential preference only ballots, which are required to be sent to active military and permanently overseas voters. Those voters will also receive a full ballot once they are printed.
“This is a situation where federal law and state law don’t align in the timing of sending a ballot with federal candidates on it,” Trueblood said. “No ballots have been sent out that were ‘missing’ Ms. Egelkrout’s name.”
