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One of the bags of uncounted ballots from Madison’s 2024 presidential election was inadvertently stored in a county-owned building that was left unsecured at times and that was used at one point by an “unauthorized” person for shelter, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s latest report into the ballot snafu.
The bag, which contained 68 ballots, was discovered after the election in a building that formerly housed the Ale Asylum brewery. Madison records show that as recently as February 2025, a door to the facility wasn’t locking properly, and email records show that county officials discussed conducting wellness and security checks at the building at that time. It’s unclear when exactly the homeless person was inside the building.
Dane County bought the 45,000-square-foot building in 2023 to convert it into an election center, but renovations have not begun. The center isn’t scheduled to open until 2027, Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said.
In the meantime, the city asked to use the facility for storing its election materials, because it didn’t have enough space elsewhere, Madison Interim Clerk Mike Haas said. The bag of live ballots was never supposed to be there; only nonsensitive items, like security carts, plastic voting booths, and signage, were intended to be stored at the building, Deputy Clerk Jim Verbick said.
In an interview with Votebeat, McDonell recalled city officials asking whether the county was using the Ale Asylum building. The county said no — it still needed design work and a construction bid. “They were desperate for some place to put everything,” McDonell told Votebeat. “And so we said they could use it.”
Dane County isn’t charging the city to use the facility. The city is now looking for another storage site ahead of upcoming construction, Haas said.
No evidence of ballot tampering at the site
A city contractor told the commission that there were no external alarms at the building and that city officials once called police to remove someone sleeping in the “old offices kind of hidden away” at the facility.
The only police call on the property since the beginning of 2024 came in July of that year, when Madison police received a report of a possible stolen camper parked outside. Two people were arrested for possession of stolen property and the camper was towed, police spokesperson Stephanie Fryer said.
There’s no evidence that the lax security at the building contributed to the Madison ballots going missing, or that the ballots were tampered with at the facility. The bag of uncounted ballots found there had its security seals intact when election officials discovered it a week after Election Day. None of the ballot storage carts kept there had been improperly unlocked after the election, a contractor for the Madison Clerk’s Office who testified to the commission said.
Asked for further detail about the security concerns, Wisconsin Elections Commission chair Ann Jacobs, who co-led the investigation, said she didn’t remember the details of every deposition.
New election center will address security, storage concerns
The county bought the facility for just under $5 million after a task force found its previous election storage space inadequate for such a critical function. A 2023 report highlighted the old facility’s vulnerability to water damage — Madison had to replace most of its tabulators after a 2016 flood — and the increased threats to election workers following the 2020 election.
Wold Architects and Engineers is working with the county on the project, which is expected to go out for construction bids soon. The final design includes security upgrades like keycards for access and will have fenced-in parking lots, external and internal cameras, and alarms, McDonell said.
Once completed, the facility will house election equipment for the county’s municipalities in a warehouse space, including a portion just for Madison equipment, he said. The building will also house offices for Dane County Clerk’s Office staff and include space to train poll workers, conduct recounts, and monitor emergency situations, he said.
McDonell said the center is not modeled exactly on any existing facility, but it borrows design features from big metro-area election centers in Maricopa County, Arizona; Hillsborough County, Florida; and Cook County, Illinois. There’s no comparable center currently operating in Wisconsin.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Alexander at ashur@votebeat.org.
