Another contested county board race, a Kronenwetter board member arrested and other tidbits
The Wisconsin Election Commission overturned the removal of two of Jo Ann Egelkrout's signatures, giving her the required 51 signatures to remain on the ballot
Jo Ann EgelKrout will be on ballot for Marathon County Board in April after the Wisconsin Election Commission ruled that two of her signatures were improperly disallowed.
The decision leaves Egelkrout with the 50 signatures needed to appear on the ballot.
County Clerk Kim Trueblood initially disallowed 14 of the 62 signatures that Egelkrout submitted. The two in question Trueblood disallowed because they did not have addresses.
Egelkrout provided affidavits attesting to their full address but, according to the WEC, Trueblood still didn’t allow them. Trueblood explained it’s because her affidavit didn’t explain how she had personal knowledge of those addresses, since it wasn’t included in the affidavit, as required by state law.
The WEC ruled otherwise, stating that the affidavit was sufficient and that the signatures should be allowed, placing Egelkrout on the ballot in April.
The decision also alleges that Trueblood did not accept a properly verified complaint from Egelkrout’s opponent, Kody Hart, because he was not put under oath to the clerk to swear to the veracity of his complaint. Hart made the complaint under email, which is not sufficient according to the WEC’s decision.
That wasn’t relevant to the signatures though, the WEC decision says, because Trueblood independently challenged the signatures.
Trueblood in a statement pointed out that she initially denied the two signatures because they didn’t have an address, and that Egelkrout’s affidavit “did not indicate how Ms. Egelkrout, who was not the circulator of the nomination papers in question, had personal knowledge of the addresses subsequently provided, which is required per Wisconsin Administrative Code Section EL 2.05(4),” Trueblood wrote to The Wausonian. “Accordingly, I declined to overturn her findings relative to striking these two additional signatures.”
Trueblood said she would abide by the WEC’s decision and put Egelkrout on the ballot.
The decision means that Hart, who works in the city clerk’s office and is formerly the chair of the county Democratic party, and Egelkrout will faced off in April for the District 3. That makes 14 contested races in spring.
The complaint is now live on the WEC website. Read the it in full here.
Kronenwetter village board member arrested - again
According to Marathon County Jail records, a Kronenwetter Village Board member has been arrested.
Sean Dumais was arrested Saturday on an outstanding warrant from another county, according to court records. The warrant appears to originate from his Washington County child support case.
According to online court records, a Washington Circuit Court judge found Dumais in contempt of court for failing to make child support payments and for failing to look for work as order. Dumais was ordered to spend 60 days in Washington County Jail with Huber released in order to work if within 18 months he does not start making regular payments.
Dumais was arrested last year, The Wausonian was the first to report. That arrest was also related to child support payments.
According to the booking, Dumais is currently being held on a $5,270 cash bond. Dumais featured heavily in our story about the Kronenwetter Village Board’s kerfuffle over a fire truck and the loan for that fire truck never being approved. Dumais used the word “fraud” in the reports he included in Wednesday’s packet, but clarified he meant false documents and repeated that he wasn’t accusing anyone of anything.
I can’t link directly to the booking, but you can search Dumais in the search field at this link.
Dumais is one of six on the ballot this April as an incumbent. Dumais was sixth of six candidates to make it through the primary election last week, in a field of nine.
A new bill against YouTubers
Well, kind of. Mayor Katie Rosenberg, Police Chief Matt Barnes and Rep. Katrina Shankland (D—Stevens Point) held a press conference for a bill headed to Gov. Tony Evers desk. That bill would essentially charge for the costs of police departments making redactions in response to body cam footage open records requests.
A future story will go into more detail (The Wausonian was the only print media present) but basically a number of YouTubers are requesting body cam footage, such that police can’t keep up and might have to request even more staff to handle all the requests.
It’s a new version of a bill that looked far more ominous for journalists, as it originally sought to charge for all redactions.
More on that later this week.
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