Swing-state election official resigns amid mail-in ballot investigation
A Green Bay election official accused of bungling ballot distribution sent herself packing on Friday.
Celestine Jeffreys resigned August 7 after allegedly issuing 152 duplicate absentee ballots to registered voters in April 2026 amid a subsequent Wisconsin Elections Commission investigation into her conduct. Jeffreys was the Green Bay official who helped facilitate Mark Zuckerberg-backed 2020 election grants routed through the Center for Tech and Civic Life, according to RealClear Investigations.
‘A clerk who does not believe the law prohibits issuing duplicate ballots cannot be trusted to prevent it from happening again.’
According to reporting by Spectrum News 1, Jeffreys was placed on administrative leave by the City of Green Bay on July 9 after the Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously voted to open an investigation into the absentee ballot incident.
Brown County Republican Party board member Theresa Sipes filed a complaint against Jeffreys in April, alleging the duplication violated state law. The duplicates created “a substantial risk of confusion, double voting and increasing the opportunity for and possibility of fraud,” according to the filing.
The Wisconsin Republican Party backed Sipes’ filing.
The City of Green Bay defended Jeffreys, arguing that the discrepancy was an accident.
“Wisconsin law prohibits election fraud, not the inadvertent issuance of multiple ballots,” Green Bay stated in its response, obtained by Fox 11. “The statute does not impose liability for inadvertent duplication in issuance, rather, it establishes the elector’s right to receive a ballot.”
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Sipes' lawyer Nicholas Boerke rejected the city’s defense.
“A clerk who does not believe the law prohibits issuing duplicate ballots cannot be trusted to prevent it from happening again,” Boerke argued in a supplemental letter to the WEC. He went on to say that the “fundamental misunderstanding of ballot issuance law displayed in the response makes future violations inevitable absent commission action.”
The WEC saw enough merit in Boerke's arguments to open an investigation.
“The commission authorizes an investigation into the City of Green Bay clerk to determine if the clerk or any employee or contractor of the City of Green Bay failed to comply with Wisconsin law or otherwise abuse their discretion in the preparation and mailing of absentee ballot mailers," Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Don Millis told Spectrum News 1.
Her resignation follows a years-long string of controversies, beginning with her tenure as Mayor Eric Genrich’s chief of staff.
“Is he working with you? As far as I’m concerned I am taking all of my cues from CTCL and work with those you recommend,” Jeffreys wrote in an email to the Center for Tech and Civic Life, according to RealClearInvestigations.
After Jeffreys’ email and in conjunction with CTCL, Green Bay hired Democrat operative Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein to oversee its 2020 election operations. Spitzer-Rubenstein eventually drove out then-City Clerk Kris Teske after demanding unprecedented access to voter databases.
The WEC reviewed the incident and found no impropriety. Wisconsin voters banned private election assistance via constitutional amendment in 2024.
Jeffreys previously courted controversy in 2023 when she allowed third parties to return absentee ballots on behalf of others. In 2024, the clerk failed to deactivate voter registrations in violation of state law in instances where Election Day materials were returned as undeliverable.
The Green Bay Mayor’s Office directed Blaze News to its August 7 press release when reached for comment.
“The City of Green Bay and Celestine Jeffreys are jointly announcing that Ms. Jeffreys has made the decision to step down from her role as City Clerk. We wish her the best in her future endeavors,” the press release states. “This will be the City’s only statement on the matter.”
Jeffreys, the Brown County Republican Party, the Wisconsin Elections Commission, and the Center for Tech and Civic Life did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Mark Zuckerberg declined to comment.
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Federal judge REJECTS the victim narrative pushed by the criminally charged SPLC
The Southern Poverty Law Center's bad year just got a whole lot worse.
Besides facing congressional scrutiny, the liberal organization whose bread and butter is smearing law-abiding conservatives as "extremists" was federally charged in April with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
'The American people deserve to see this hate racket exposed in court.'
The SPLC — now under the leadership of CEO Ryan Haygood — tried to play the victim in hopes of having the case thrown out. The federal judge overseeing the case did not, however, buy what the professional concern-mongers were selling.
Tyler O'Neil, author of "Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center," told Blaze News, "The SPLC just tried to weasel its way out of accountability for allegedly propping up the Ku Klux Klan by complaining about President Trump’s mean social media posts. Judge Marks rightly saw through this charade."
"Abbe Lowell’s legal team must have known it was a stretch to ask a judge to dismiss the case for vindictive prosecution before trial, but to do so without any evidence tying alleged animus directly to prosecutors required real chutzpah," continued O'Neil. "The motion may have been catnip to the legacy media, but it was dead on arrival in court."
How it started
Prosecutors have accused the SPLC of secretly pouring several million dollars in donated funds to individuals linked to various extremist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the National Alliance, Aryan Nations, and National Socialist Party of America — groups the liberal organization was supposedly fighting against.
According to the superseding indictment filed by the Justice Department in June, which charges the SPLC with the same 11 counts, some of the donor funds were dumped into "fictitious accounts" and used ultimately to pay for so-called field sources "who were either leading or affiliated with multiple violent extremist organizations."
Field sources allegedly used SPLC donor money for numerous questionable activities, including creating racist paraphernalia that extremist groups sold at rallies; publishing extremist literature for recruitment purposes; purchasing materials for cross burnings and Ku Klux Klan hoods; and creating new chapters of extremist groups.
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A former SPLC director is also alleged, among other things, to have used donor cash to fund her secret romance with a neo-Nazi informant.
Blaze Media did not immediately receive a response from the SPLC.
In May, the SPLC, which denies any wrongdoing, filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama to dismiss the federal charges, claiming that it is the victim of "a vindictive prosecution" launched in response to speech protected under the First Amendment — the "latest manifestation of a top-down, retributive campaign."
The SPLC claimed that it has been "falsely accused" by the Trump administration of being anti-Christian, aiding the Biden administration's weaponization of the DOJ, participating in political violence, and helping rig the 2020 election.
The SPLC claimed further that the administration's supposed animus "culminated in the criminal charges against the SPLC — an indictment premised on conclusory accusations but devoid of provable facts or a proper statement of the law."
Should the court refuse to dismiss the charges, the SPLC asked that it at least require discovery into the government's prosecutorial motives.
How it's going
U.S. District Court Judge Emily Marks, a Trump appointee, delivered some bad news to the SPLC on Friday.
"The SPLC is not entitled to discovery or dismissal of the indictment," Marks said in her order. "The SPLC has failed to offer some evidence tending to show animus on the part of the prosecutors involved in bringing this case and that such animus resulted in the prosecution, the showing required for discovery. Because it cannot satisfy that standard, it necessarily fails to satisfy the higher standard that would entitle it to dismissal of the indictment."
In her order, Marks also highlighted the inevitable fallout of presuming vindictiveness on the part of the government just because the SPLC was bashing the Trump administration prior to its indictment.
"It is true that before its indictment, the SPLC extensively criticized the Trump administration," wrote the judge. "But if that were sufficient to warrant a presumption, then the Government's fears would be realized, and an entity could effectively immunize itself from prosecution simply by engaging in protected speech, such as criticizing political figures and their policies."
Marks stressed that the "Court cannot license a fishing expedition based on innuendo or speculation."
"It is the SPLC’s, not the Court’s, burden to show that the Government’s prosecution was improperly motivated," continued the judge. "The SPLC cannot merely provide the rough outline of a theory — the President is out to get it — and expect the Court to fill in the blanks."
An SPLC spokesperson said in a statement obtained by The Hill, "While the Southern Poverty Law Center is disappointed with the outcome of the motion, we will continue to vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work."
The spokesperson for the group accused of reviving at least one hate group and bankrolling the creation of KKK garb added, "SPLC will continue to fight hate, and we will continue to envision and create a safer and more just world."
"The SPLC can scream to high heaven about FBI Director Kash Patel calling the group a 'partisan smear machine,' but that doesn't make it any less true," Tyler O'Neil told Blaze News. "The SPLC scares donors and demonizes its opponents by putting mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits on a 'hate map’ with Klan chapters. Now it stands accused of reimbursing cross-burning materials and paying for KKK hoods. The American people deserve to see this hate racket exposed in court — and Marks’ ruling brings this case one step closer to trial."
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Haiti suddenly went from 'GREAT ALREADY' to 'hell' now that Trump is sending back its people
The existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre claimed that "hell is other people." Former Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera is among the bleeding hearts who believe that hell is Haiti — at least now that the Trump administration is repatriating its people.
Then
President Donald Trump identified Haiti in a January 2018 meeting as one among various "s**thole countries." This was, after all, then a failed state plagued by violence, haunted by rumors of cannibalism, and still reeling from a deadly earthquake.
'Ridiculous.'
There was tremendous backlash over Trump's remarks — not only from the Haitian government and the United Nations' human rights office but from Democrats and the liberal media.
Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D) were among the many concern-mongers who claimed that Trump's vivid characterization of Haiti as a less-than-ideal nation was "racist."
In addition to similarly attacking Trump, celebrities ran a PR campaign for the Caribbean nation, portraying it as a paradisiacal place.
Conan O'Brien, for instance, aired a one-hour special showcasing Haiti's perceived beauty — a special that included refutations of Trump's "s**thole" comment from Haitian natives along with repeated emphases that the island nation was a "beautiful country."
In subsequent months, others, including Bill Maher, jumped on the bandwagon, donning apparel that stated, "HAITI IS GREAT ALREADY."
Unfortunately, the situation deteriorated in Haiti before it got better — simultaneously confirming Trump's initial framing and prompting the liberal media to ramp up its gaslighting campaign.
When confronted — a couple of years after Haitian President Jovenel Moise's assassination — with reports that criminals had taken over the country's capital, freed thousands of felons from jail, engaged in systematic rape, forced the prime minister to resign, and threatened genocide, NBC News, for instance, reassured its viewers in 2024 that contrary to claims by "right-wing pundits," the Western Hemisphere's poorest country did not also have a problem with cannibalism.
Now
The Trump administration announced in July 2025 that it was terminating Haiti's Temporary Protected Status, having determined that the Caribbean nation no longer meets the conditions for special status, in part due to improvements in domestic safety and stability.
While the administration recognized that the country still suffers a "lack of functional government authority" and that "gang violence in Haiti persists," then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that "the environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home."
This revocation of Haiti's special status — which has shielded roughly 350,000 Haitians from removal — faced multiple legal challenges; however, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled in the administration's favor in June.
Now that the Department of Homeland Security is "going after" Haitian migrants with suspended special statuses, the usual suspects have jettisoned their "HAITI IS GREAT ALREADY" framing and adopted the president's previous understanding of the Caribbean country as a loathsome place.
Geraldo Rivera, who asked Trump in 2018 to apologize for his "unfortunate" remarks about Haiti and other third-world nations, wrote on Sunday — in the wake of reports about the deportation initiative under way — that "expelling Haitian immigrants is sending them straight to hell."
Rivera was widely criticized for joining the chorus of liberals against the repatriation campaign.
Normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck wrote in response, "Didn’t the entire media and Democrats in DC swear that Haiti was amazing and wonderful and perfect when Trump called it a hellhole? Trump then said okay, then sounds like they can go back and now the framing switches to, 'it’s hell on earth, you can’t send them back!' Ridiculous."
Mike Howell, the president of the Oversight Project and Blaze News contributor, alluded to Rivera's previous concern-mongering over Trump's "s**thole," then asked, "What happened[?]"
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Netanyahu REJECTS Trump's Gaza peace plan: 'They have ideas'
President Donald Trump announced on July 30 that his Board of Peace had "reached a HISTORIC agreement" in Gaza that would bring an end to a conflict that has claimed well over 70,000 lives.
While the president characterized his proposed resolution as a major win for the Palestinian people and for Israel alike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is evidently of a different mind.
'President Trump will be very, very disappointed.'
Netanyahu — whom Trump has rebuked repeatedly in recent months for undermining his initiatives in the region — rejected the Board of Peace's 15-point peace plan on Sunday, telling his cabinet that some of its terms are unacceptable.
Peace proposal
The peace plan released by Trump's Board of Peace, which would be undertaken in stages, requires, among other things, that:
- Israel, Hamas, and "other Palestinian factions" suspend military operations in Gaza;
- Hamas and other factions in Gaza agree not only that all civilian governance and security functions in Gaza will be taken over by the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, but that the committee can carry out its responsibilities independently;
- the NCAG will oversee the disarmament process;
- Gaza will be "governed according to the principle of One Authority, One Law, One Weapon";
- Israeli forces — who presently occupy more than half of Gaza — will execute a phased withdrawal from Gaza; and
- the International Stabilization Force will separate Israeli forces from NCAG-controlled areas during the withdrawal.
"This agreement is a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people," Trump said in a statement. "At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks."
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"The threat that emerged from Gaza on October 7 will NOT be allowed to rebuild!" continued the president. "Under this agreement, Gaza will finally be in the hands of a new Palestinian government that serves its PEOPLE."
After announcing the deal, which Hamas accepted through Egyptian mediators, Trump told reporters that "Israel is very happy."
While the Israeli security cabinet initially approved of having the International Stabilization Force enter Gaza to aid in the disarmament of Hamas and the transition, top officials called on Netanyahu to reject the plan, reported the Times of Israel.
Rejection
Netanyahu, who facing both a tough re-election battle and an ongoing corruption trial, told his cabinet on Sunday, "Israel rejects the 15-point document."
"The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed," continued Netanyahu. "And when I say Hamas must be disarmed, I mean the heavy weapons, the less-heavy weapons, all weapons. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not a fictitious one."
The Israeli leader — whose nation is the "largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II" — noted that his government has raised its reservations over the peace deal with Washington.
"They have ideas," said Netanyahu, apparently referring to the Americans behind the peace deal. "Some of them are acceptable to us and some are unacceptable to us, and we know how to stand up to these things. We have proven this in the past, and we are proving it today as well. In addition, the IDF will continue to thwart threats against our forces and against our citizens."
The White House did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.
While flatly rejecting Trump's peace plan, Netanyahu nevertheless spoke warmly of the American president.
"I have great appreciation for President Trump," said the foreign leader. "He is a great friend of ours in the White House. I greatly appreciate the historic partnership with the United States against Iran's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. And I want to emphasize again: With an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not possess nuclear weapons."
"Unlike all those who preach to us, we are doing what needs to be done for Israel’s security, and we can and know how to stand our ground even against our very best friends when necessary," added Netanyahu.
In addition to rejecting the peace deal, Netanyahu rejected the possibility of a Palestinian state in Gaza.
The prime minister's remarks were welcomed by various Israeli officials, including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionist Party.
"We went to war with a central goal: the destruction of Hamas," said Smotrich, in a statement reported by the Times of Israel. "The (military) cannot withdraw even a millimeter from the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip cannot begin any process of reconstruction before the complete dismantling and demobilization of Hamas and the Gaza Strip."
Hamas, on the other hand, remains supportive of Trump's plan and has asked Washington to pressure Israel to get on board.
According to an X.com translation of the original Arabic, Basem Naim, a member of Hamas' politburo, stated on Sunday, "We are committed to the roadmap reached with the representatives of the Peace Council in Cairo just days ago, and our agreement, despite all the challenges, reflected a commitment to the interests of our Palestinian people."
"We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to press Netanyahu and his government to compel him to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the path for internal political and electoral reasons," added Naim.
After Trump first announced the deal, a U.S. official told the Washington Post, "We're not asking Israel to do anything other than agree to the 20-point plan that they agreed to initially, and so we're very confident they will adhere to it. If they don't, obviously, President Trump will be very, very disappointed."
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