GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- Tuesday night's Green Bay Common Council meeting lead to a lengthy discussion on the election and how things were handled.
City Clerk Kris Teske presented the events leading up to the election, that includes working to process absentee ballot requests. She said they tried to process as many as possible, apologizing to those who didn't receive their absentee ballot. Teske also said it was a decision between training people to work the polls or get more absentee ballot requests out. She said they chose to work on the absentee ballots.
"We didn't know at the time the National Guard was going to be trained," added Teske.
The decision to go to just two polling locations was also discussed. Teske explained that certain rooms in buildings might make it more difficult to social distance. She said the gyms at the high schools have outside doors that allowed voters to go in one door and out the other.
"When the mayor decided to have two polling locations, it became obvious that we would have enough qualified experienced poll workers," added Teske.''
Alderman Chris Wery said they need a transparent report and timeline of communications and decisions made about the election, pointing out the number of people who weren't able to vote.
"We owe that to the people who couldn't vote. We all heard from them," added Wery.
He also questioned who has the final say when it comes to making decisions about the election.
"Blame it on the state. Blame it on whoever you want. Our decisions took a bad situation and made it far, far worse, horribly worse, and the buck has to stop somewhere, and if it's you Mr. Mayor, fine," said Wery.
"I don't know how many times I can own it or accept the buck, Alder Wery, but I have," replied Mayor Eric Genrich.
Mayor Genrich had urged the state to postpone the election for weeks.
City officials did talk about moving forward and planning for the statewide Partisan Primary in August and the general election in November.
