No election is finalized without some kind of discrepancy regarding lost or missing ballots, and they always seem to be the absentee and mail-in ballots that are mysteriously misplaced or discovered after the fact.

According to JustTheNews, that's exactly what's happening in Wisconsin, as the state's election commission is now investigating some 200 ballots found in Madison in the days and weeks after the November election. 

Wisconsin Election Commission Chairwoman Ann Jacobs announced that an investigation will be launched into ballots found on two dates following the election -- Nov. 12 and Dec. 3.

In total, the state discovered 193 total absentee ballots between the two aforementioned dates.

What's going on?

Jacobs released a statement regarding the missing ballots, vowing to preserve the state's election integrity as a result of the findings.

The integrity of the election process is important and we needed to know and understand this," Jacobs said.

Republican commissioner Marge Bostelmann echoed the need for an investigation, explaining that the board is not looking to hand out punishments but to ensure that it doesn't happen again in the future.

"I'm not looking at this as a punishment or something we need to investigate because of wrong doing," Bostelmann said. "We need to investigate it to make sure it goes smoothly in the future and that we don't have any other problems."

Wisconsinites deserve confidence in our elections.

Yet under Madison’s mismanagement – from issuing duplicate ballots to failing to count votes – it’s clear that accountability is needed. pic.twitter.com/pstsea9BLf

— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) January 4, 2025

"My biggest concern here is why it took a month and a half for this to come out. That's very, very disturbing and I'm hoping we can determine why that happened," said Republican commissioner Don Mills.

Why the delay?

Mills called out the fact that it took nearly two months for the news of the discovered ballots to hit the headlines.

JustTheNews noted:

Madison’s election managers didn’t alert anyone about the missing absentee ballots until late last month. In fact, it wasn’t until the day after Christmas that Madison’s mayor announced that the ballots had been found.

In a statement issued shortly after Christmas, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said, "A discrepancy of this magnitude is unacceptable."

She added, "This oversight is a significant departure from the high standard our residents expect and must be addressed and avoided in future elections."