KRONENWETTER, Wis. (WSAW) – A Kronenwetter voter is accusing the village clerk of obstructing an observer during public testing of voting machines before Election Day.

Daniel Kindelberger filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Thursday. The commission received the complaint and gave the village until November 27 to provide a written response.

7 Investigates emailed the clerk, but she forwarded the response to Village President Chris Voll, citing “company policy.” Voll responded by email: “(T)he village just heard about the complaint yesterday. We are in the process of investigating the allegations related to the complaint. When we prepare our response, we will send it to the WEC.”

Kindelberger based his complaint on email exchanges between Dan Joling, who is a Kronenwetter voter and former village police chief, and Clerk Bobbi Birk-LaBarge. He believes that Joling, as an observer, should have been allowed to videotape the public testing of the voting machines and that the clerk erred in the statute that does not allow observers to videotape polls.

“Her email says she stopped Mr Joling from registering under statute 7.41(1). The statute clearly refers to a polling place where a vote is taken, not a public inspection of the tabulating machine,” Kindelberger wrote in the complaint.

Kindelberger also claims that adequate public notice of the public tabulation testing was not given. The village posted an announcement on Oct. 25 and Oct. 27 on its Facebook page about the Oct. 28 public testing. Kindelberger also noted that it was posted on the village bulletin board, which is at the entrance to the village. However, Kindelberger claimed that it was not posted in the newspaper as required in the Wis. State. 5.84(1).

He referred to a WEC press release which states the testing as a public meeting. He stated in his complaint, “Because the WEC does not specify otherwise, it is reasonable to assign rights defined in other public meetings to apply to this public meeting involving the testing of the vote recording machine.” Kindelberger then refers to a the law in “open meetings of government bodies” which requires the government body to accommodate anyone who wishes to record, film, or photograph the meeting unless it interferes with the meeting or the rights of the participants.

Kindelberger accused Birk-LaBarge of holding a grudge against Joling, citing her removal from the list of election inspectors, as noted in a previous WEC complaint against the village. That March complaint is not over.

The The WEC has determined another complaint filed Oct. 24 was not properly filed because the plaintiff (superintendent of the Mosinee School District) did not live in the village as required by statute.

Kindelberger’s complaint concluded: “I for one would have liked to see the video of Mr. Joiling (sic) along with any questions he had. The village clerk’s refusal to allow him to record the public test was a violation of my right as a voter, along with the growing suspicion that the Kronenwetter election is not conducted honestly.”

Email exchange

The email exchange alludes to an earlier conversation in which Joling had questioned the ability of absentee ballots to be counted in Kronenwetter because of folds in the ballot. He contacted the host of NHPR’s “All Things Considered” asking about her ballot reporting in Windham, New Hampshire and included her response in his email to Birk-LaBarge.

“I see there is a certification of the tabulator on Monday and I was wondering if this issue could also be checked to ensure (sic) that the folding of the ballots does not affect the results,” Joling asked on October 27.

Birk-LaBarge responded shortly thereafter with a lengthy explanation of the process. She began, “I understand your concern reading that article. However, voting experts say that a crease through a candidate’s name would not invalidate the vote cast. It is almost impossible to design a ballot where the folds do not pass through any name zones. The DS200 machines we use are not affected by folds.”

She went on to explain the system and added that if a ballot cannot be scanned correctly, it will be manually counted and included in the totals, or the ballot will be redone and scanned. She added that different folds had previously been tested in cars in public tests. She encouraged people to observe the process during the public process and explained how the results are verified by the municipality, county and state before they become official totals.

Joling thanked him for the information. The email conversation continued the next day, with Birk-LaBarge responding to Jolings’ verbal request during public testing.

“Today, during the testing of the public machines, you requested to film the chief election inspectors inserting the ballots into the tabulator machines. I explained to you that you could not because there was a state statute that prohibited this action.”

Birk-LaBarge offered him Wis. State. 7.41(1) and the The WEC Handbook citing pages 81 and 83.

“While observing, your consistent challenging of the direction and questioning of the direction of the Chief Electoral Inspectors has become a distraction and interfered with our orderly process of public testing of our voting equipment, therefore you have received a warning from me, as village clerk. authorization to do so,” she continued. “I want to thank you for not continuing those distractions and challenges to our Chief Electoral Inspector.”

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