Milwaukee election leader ousted 6 months before election in presidential swing state

MADISON, Wis. — Milwaukee’s elections director has been ousted by the mayor in a surprise move that comes just six months before Wisconsin’s largest city is set to take the spotlight in the presidential swing state.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson announced Monday that he would replace Claire Woodall, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, with her deputy, Paulina Gutierrez.

Milwaukee was the center of attention in Wisconsin, a state known for close elections and where four of the past six presidential elections were decided by less than one percentage point.

In 2020, former President Donald Trump and others quickly called fraud after late results from Democratic-dominated Milwaukee helped Joe Biden narrowly carry the state by just under 21,000 votes. Recounts demanded by Trump confirmed Biden’s victory.

The change has nothing to do with the way Woodall conducted the election, but was instead related to “other issues within the Board of Elections office and city government that raised concerns,” according to the mayor’s spokesperson, Jeff Fleming. He would not say what those problems were.

Woodall did not return messages seeking comment. Her replacement, Gutierrez, also did not return messages.

Woodall has been outspoken about the challenges she and other election officials have felt in recent years.

She has described being harassed and threatened after the 2020 election via email, phone calls and letters to her home — threats so serious that she has an assigned FBI agent to forward them to.

The change came a week after Woodall’s former deputy, Kimberly Zapata, was sentenced to probation and fined $3,000 after being convicted of misconduct in office and fraud for obtaining counterfeit ballots. Zapata argued that she acted as a whistleblower and exposed vulnerabilities in the state’s election system.

Johnson and others who work in elections emphasized that the change would not affect the way elections are conducted in Milwaukee.

“Paulina’s integrity and capabilities are uniquely suited to this position,” Johnson said in a statement announcing the change. “She will lead the office at an important time when public scrutiny of the department’s work will be extremely high. I have confidence in her and I will ensure that the department has the resources it needs to fulfill its duties.”

Gutierrez has only been a staffer at the city’s election commission for a little more than a year. Neil Albrecht, who led the agency for 15 years before retiring in May 2020, has offered his help as a volunteer, Fleming said. Woodall took over from Albrecht in 2020 and has led the office until now.

After his re-election in April, Johnson had to reappoint all of his cabinet-level positions for the approval of the city council. That’s why he decided to make the change at this time, Fleming said.

None of the city’s three election commissioners returned a message seeking comment. But Ann Jacobs, a Democratic member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission from Milwaukee, said she was surprised by the move.

“These types of changes are always a challenge, but given the number of elections Wisconsin has, there is no ‘right time’ for these types of changes to happen,” Jacobs said. “I expect that the office will be professional and continue their work and that the elections will be conducted smoothly and correctly.”

Jacobs emphasized that elections are run by teams of people.

“The administration of elections is not something that depends on one person,” she said. “It depends on the workflow, the task flows and the activities of an entire office.”