Alleged Madison ballot shenanigans in Twitter video actually part of routine ballot processing

By Lynn Sommers Last updated Nov 8, 2022

A video posted to Twitter of a Madison poll worker seen marking up ballots Tuesday actually shows a routine step in the election process, the Madison City Clerk’s office said.

The 25-second cellphone video shows a TV tuned to Fox News, where on one half of the screen are scenes from polling sites around the nation and on the other the host of “The Faulkner Focus,” Harris Faulkner.

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The masked Madison election worker at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens polling place can be seen making marks on a stack of ballots in front of him as the video-taker and off-camera narrator asks “what the hell is he doing?”

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What he’s doing, according to Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl, is “initialing and indicating the ward number on the back of the ballot” — as in ballots that have not yet been filled out by voters.

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“A second poll worker will add their initials to each ballot just before handing the ballot to a voter,” she said.

The video was posted by the anonymous account The KC Purge, which describes itself as “Pureblood,” “Make America Great Again” and “#RedWave,” among other things.

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