Oneida County canvass documents wrong ballots and reporting gaps across multiple towns

The Oneida County Board of Canvass met April 9, 2026 in the County Clerk’s Office to review records from the April 7 Spring Election and logged a series of procedural and counting irregularities across multiple municipalities.

County Clerk Tracy Hartman opened the canvass at 9:00 a.m. and said the board would review poll lists, absentee logs, tally sheets, tapes, and Inspectors’ Statements, reconcile voter and ballot numbers, enter results into WisVote, and prepare the Summary Statement and Certification to mail to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Chief Deputy Clerk Heidi Nehls recorded the minutes.

The board identified recurring problems that fall into three categories: ballot‑count mismatches between voter rosters and ballots cast, missing or incomplete Inspector’s Statements and related chain‑of‑custody documentation, and absent tally or write‑in tapes. Specific findings included: Town of Cassian (Wards 1 and 2) with missing Inspector signatures, absent tamper‑evident seal serial numbers, and incomplete certification pages; Town of Crescent where Wards 1 and 3 had one more ballot than voters while Ward 2 had one more voter than ballots and no write‑in tape was submitted; Lake Tomahawk wards where two wrong ballots were determined to have been issued and optical scan totals or absentee totals were not listed; Minocqua ward groupings with ballot mismatches and combined Inspector’s Statements for seven wards; Pine Lake ward groupings with three wrong ballots identified across paired wards; and City of Rhinelander wards with offsets (including a four‑ballot offset across Wards 14–16 and an instance where a voter reportedly ripped up a ballot). In several towns (Pelican wards, some Rhinelander wards) tally tapes or write‑in tapes were not provided. A small number of municipalities — including Newbold, Nokomis, Stella, Sugar Camp, and Three Lakes — submitted complete, signed reports with no issues noted.

Board staff said they would contact the municipal clerks to obtain missing signatures, call‑in sheets, tally tapes, and corrected Inspector’s Statements where required. The board will complete the Tabular Statement of Votes Cast and reconcile the election‑night results; entries will be made in WisVote and the printed Summary Statement and Certification will be completed, signed by the board, and mailed to the Wisconsin Elections Commission as part of the official record.

The canvass concluded at 5:15 p.m. and the minutes were prepared by Chief Deputy Clerk Heidi Nehls. The county did not record any formal motions or votes on alternate outcomes during the meeting; the board’s actions were limited to review, documentation of discrepancies, and direction to municipal clerks to correct forms and supply missing materials before certification.