All three election workers in the small Wisconsin town of Westfield, home to approximately 800 residents, resigned last week.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, former clerk Brenda Peterson, chief election inspector Laura Paine and election inspector Linda Bennett submitted their resignations last week.
While it is unclear what led to their resignations, former town treasurer Carol Soberri, who also resigned last Tuesday along with former supervisor John Bennett, told the Wisconsin State Journal that she and the others had had a long-running feud with the remaining town supervisor, Carol Golisch, and newly elected chair Lindsay Bauman.
The resignation follows a prolonged local dispute involving allies of former Cchair Sharon Galonski against Bauman and Golisch and their supporters. Galonski was elected in April 2023 but lost a recall election to Bauman last month.
The resignations come as election preparations are set to begin in the battleground state with in-person absentee voting with less than a month before the November 5 election in which former President Donald Trump will face off against Vice President Kamala Harris.
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However, Courtney Trimble, the deputy clerk of Marquette County, where Westfield is located, was appointed last week as interim clerk to oversee elections in the town and remains confident in her ability to train election workers even given the short time period.
“I’ve been a town clerk,” Trimble told the Wisconsin State Journal, referring to her past work in neighboring Packwaukee. “I now am an election specialist for the entire county, so I’m very familiar with how elections work. I’m confident in my ability to train the election workers, even in a short time period. I have zero concerns.”
After her appointment, Trimble said six volunteers stepped up to support election efforts and several others had previously volunteered after the resignations earlier in the week.
Westfield, located in central Wisconsin, saw 538 residents cast their votes in the 2020 presidential election. Despite President Joe Biden winning the state by just under 21,000 votes, he lost the town’s vote by 137.
The resignations come as battleground states, including Wisconsin, will play a key role in determining the result of this year’s election due to the Electoral College, which awards each state a certain number of electoral votes based on population. A presidential candidate needs to secure 270 electoral votes for victory, and winning the national popular vote does not guarantee success. Surveys from battleground states may be more telling than those of national polls.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker, as of Wednesday afternoon Harris is narrowly ahead of Trump in Wisconsin by just 0.7points, with 48.1 percent compared to his 47.4 percent.
Meanwhile, in a recent poll by Quinnipiac University, Trump is shown taking the lead in the state with 48 percent of the vote compared to Harris at 46 percent.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
