Charges follow poll book alteration
Edgar woman is victim
The town of Bergen clerk faces double felony charges in Marathon County Circuit Court after she allegedly signed the name of an Edgar woman upside down on a poll list in order “close the books” on the 2020 presidential election.
The possible felonies were caught by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which ordered the Marathon County District Attorney’s Office to conduct an investigation.
A narrative appended to a criminal complaint states that Bergen clerk Mary Gebert, 65, admitted to a special investigator she forged the name of the Edgar woman on the Nov. 3, 2020, poll list. The clerk reportedly told the investigator she committed the forgery after she and two other election workers, Karen Kudla, 71, and Arlene Domagola, 78, could not reconcile the number of ballots with the signed poll list even after they reviewed the poll book “three or four times.”
Gebert reportedly told the investigator she randomly picked the name of the Edgar woman, who used to live in the town of Bergen, and signed her name even though she understood that was against the law.
The investigator interviewed the Edgar woman whose signature was forged. The woman, whose name is not reported in the criminal complaint, said she voted once in Edgar in the 2020 election and was disturbed to understand that someone signed her former name to the Bergen poll list.
The Edgar woman called the forgery “unAmerican” and an assault on the right to vote. “We have a privilege to vote and make a difference,” the criminal complaint reports the woman said.
Gebert faces felony charges of misconduct in office and altering a poll list. Convictions for each of the crimes comes with a maximum $10,000 fine and 42 month prison sentence.
The official is further charged with lying to the special investigator, which is a misdemeanor. The criminal complaint says Gebert initially told investigators “I have no clue” about the Edgar woman possibly double voting.
Both Domagola and Kudla allegedly also gave the special investigator misleading or false statements about the poll list forgery although, according to the criminal complaint, both witnessed Gebert signing the Edgar woman’s name.
In a Jan. 20 initial appearance, Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Suzanne O’Neill released Gebert on a $500 signature bond. She allowed Gebert to continue her employment as a town clerk but not to conduct any further elections without supervision.
Both Domagola and Kudla have been charged with being a party to the crime of altering a poll list, a felony. Kudla has been further charged with misconduct in office, also a felony.
Village of Edgar administrator Jennifer Lopez said poll workers properly registered the woman as a first time voter on election day in November 2020 after she presented her Wisconsin driver’s license as proof of residence and photo ID.
She said only later did she learn that somebody fraudulently signed the woman’s maiden name in a Marathon County township poll book and that an investigation had been started.
Lopez said the investigation indicates how robust Wisconsin’s voting system is for discovering election fraud.
“It is nice to see the checks and balances worked,” she said.
