Wisconsin election reform proposals stalled by GOP infighting | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

A Republican lawmaker’s plan to regulate drop boxes and give Wisconsin’s clerks more time to process absentee ballots ran into obstacles last week, including skepticism from fellow Republicans and a rival GOP bill to ban drop boxes entirely. The cool reception for Rep. Scott Krug’s ideas, especially to let clerks process ballots on the Monday before an election, underscores the GOP’s persistent internal divide over election policy in Wisconsin, with advocates of reforms long sought by election officials of both parties running into distrust fueled by conspiracy theories and misinformation. Last week, the resistance appeared strong enough to stall or complicate efforts by Republicans who aim to address clerks’ needs and craft workable policy that can gain Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ support. That split was on full display at a Nov. 4 hearing of the Assembly Elections Committee, chaired by Rep. Dave Maxey. Read Article

Wisconsin: Trump pardons Republicans named in efforts to overturn 2020, but state prosecutions aren’t affected | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

President Donald Trump has pardoned a handful of Wisconsin Republicans who participated in a scheme he created to try to overturn his 2020 election loss. Trump pardoned most of the Republicans who signed paperwork falsely claiming to be electors for Trump when former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was elected in Wisconsin instead. He also included two attorneys with Wisconsin ties who are alleged to be the architects of the plan. The list posted by Trump’s pardon attorney late Sunday night, includes: Carol Brunner, Mary Buestrin, Darryl Carlson, Andrew Hitt, Kelly Ruh, Bob Spindell and Pam Travis. Read Article

Wisconsin: Monday absentee ballot processing bill stalls again due to lack of GOP support | Rich Kremer/WPR

Despite past bipartisan backing, a Republican state lawmaker says he has to “punt” an initiative to let election clerks process absentee ballots before election day because it doesn’t have enough GOP support. In September, Republicans and Democrats in the state Assembly stood side-by-side and unveiled a series of bills to update Wisconsin’s election laws. One of those initiatives is known as early processing or Monday processing. Requested by clerks, it would let them process absentee ballots the day before an election so that results can be released sooner once the polls close. The Monday process concept has been unable to clear the Legislature for several years. It was last introduced in 2023. Read Article

Wisconsin Assembly committee debates ‘reality-based’ vs. conspiracy minded solutions to absentee drop boxes | Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner

At a public hearing of the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections Tuesday, legislators engaged in an occasionally tense debate over proposed changes to the state election system. In attendance at the hearing were some of Wisconsin’s most prominent election deniers, including former state Rep. Janel Brandtjen and Peter Bernegger, a self-styled elections investigator who has been convicted of mail fraud Bernegger stood in the back of the hearing room with a group of companions, muttering and complaining about assertions by the election clerks and legislators who testified. Read Article

Wisconsin Attorney General appeals ruling requiring election officials to verify voters’ citizenship status | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Attorney General Josh Kaul is appealing a Waukesha County judge’s ruling that requires election officials to verify the citizenship status of all Wisconsin voters before the next statewide election in February. Kaul filed an appeal Monday of Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Maxwell’s Oct. 6 decision that mandates the Wisconsin Elections Commission to review the state’s voter rolls over the next five months to determine whether anyone who is not a U.S. citizen is registered to vote. “The circuit court’s decision and order drastically alters voter registration and elections in Wisconsin, violates state law, and threatens voting rights,” Kaul wrote in the Oct. 20 filing to the Dane County-based District IV Court of Appeals. Read Article

Wisconsin: Bill to allow candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to withdraw from ballots is sent to Governor | Molly Beck(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin lawmakers this week sent Gov. Tony Evers a bill that seeks to avoid a scenario that played out during the 2024 presidential election when independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was blocked in attempting to take his name off the ballot in an effort to widen President Donald Trump’s vote tally. The bill allows independent candidates for president and all candidates for statewide and legislative offices to remove their names from ballots before Election Day — a move currently barred for all reasons except death. Kennedy sought to remove his name from ballots in Wisconsin and other swing states after ending his presidential campaign as an independent candidate and endorsing Trump. Read Article

Wisconsin Elections Commission challenges order on citizenship verification | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Wisconsin state agencies on Monday asked a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge to stay his ruling requiring election officials to verify the citizenship of existing voters and those seeking to register. The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed the motion on behalf of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Department of Transportation, and related state officials. In it, the respondents called Judge Michael Maxwell’s Friday ruling “impermissively vague,” because the order bars election officials from processing new registrations without “verification” of applicants’ citizenship but doesn’t define the verification process. The filing says that any new citizenship verification process for online voter registration would require months of testing and development, and that disabling the electronic registration system in the meantime would conflict with state law requiring that system to exist. Read Article

Wisconsin lawyer Michael Gableman faces suspension over 2020 election probe | Tom Kertscher/Wisconsin Watch

A formal recommendation of punishment for Michael Gableman, whose career rise and fall set him apart in Wisconsin legal and political history, signals the end of a case that has been humiliating for the former state Supreme Court justice and the court itself. In a report issued Friday, a referee in a state Office of Lawyer Regulation case against Gableman found that Gableman committed 10 lawyer misconduct violations in his probe of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. The partisan probe was authorized at the behest of then-citizen Donald Trump, who lost that election to Joe Biden. The referee, Milwaukee attorney James Winiarski, recommended that the state Supreme Court suspend Gableman’s law license for three years. Read Article

Wisconsin bill would repeal ‘outdated’ ballot drawdown law and require risk-limiting audits | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Wisconsin’s controversial practice of randomly removing ballots to resolve discrepancies between the number of ballots and the number of voters would be prohibited under new draft legislation that requires meticulous audits in every county. The draft proposal, obtained by Votebeat from Republican Rep. Scott Krug, will be formally released this week. Krug said the proposed ban on removing random ballots, known as drawdowns, was inspired largely by a Votebeat investigation highlighting election officials’ reluctance to use the practice and questions about its constitutionality. Wisconsin’s law allowing drawdowns is almost as old as the state, and it appears to be used most often in recounts. Other states have had similar laws, but most have repealed them. Read Article

Wisconsin has a new bill to allow early start to absentee ballot processing. Can it pass? | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Wisconsin Republicans are reviving a plan to let poll workers process absentee ballots on the Monday before an election, a change long sought by election officials, but blocked by a small but influential group of conservative lawmakers. This time, the proposal is tied to measures conservatives want, including regulations for ballot drop boxes and an explicit ban on clerks fixing, or curing, errors on ballots. By bundling the measures together, GOP leaders hope to finally unite their party on a plan that would shorten the wait for election results, reduce the opportunity for election misinformation, and avoid a veto by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The proposal, which Votebeat obtained in draft form from Republican Rep. Scott Krug, is set to be publicly released next week. Krug, former chair of the Assembly Elections Committee and now assistant majority leader in the Assembly, said he “will use every little ounce of political capital effort I created on elections to get Monday processing done, because that’s 90% of our problem in the state: perception.” Read Article

Wisconsin: What to know about the investigations into the Wausau absentee ballot drop box saga | Anna Kleiber/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Nearly a year after Wausau Mayor Doug Diny’s removal of the city’s sole absentee ballot drop box located outside of city hall, investigations into the drop box, its removal and return continue. In its May 27 ruling, the commission found that city officials did not violate the law or abuse their discretion in establishing and operating the drop box. The commission found the drop box acceptable as officials properly secured the box to the ground throughout its use and there were no allegations that ballots deposited in the drop box were not properly accounted for and processed on Election Day. Additionally, the commission rejected allegations related to security measures for the drop box, noting there were clear camera views of the drop box and adequate lighting illuminating the area surrounding it. The ruling also stated the city correctly labeled the drop box with an 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day. Read Article

Wisconsin: Madison chooses new clerk to run elections after 2024 snafu | Alexander Shur/otebeat

Madison’s mayor announced the appointment of Lydia McComas, an official from Minnesota, as the city’s new clerk Wednesday, marking a fresh start for election administration in Wisconsin’s state capital after the turmoil triggered by the loss of 193 ballots in November 2024. McComas, who will begin Sept. 29, previously managed the voter engagement division in Hennepin County, Minnesota, a jurisdiction with over 700,000 voters that encompasses Minneapolis and some of its suburbs. Madison is still working to rebuild its reputation after the November 2024 ballot snafu, when election officials lost track of nearly 200 ballots. The error led to the suspension and ultimately the resignation of Maribeth Witzel-Behl, who was Madison clerk for over 20 years and was recognized by other Wisconsin clerks as a leader and mentor. Read Article

Wisconsin Governor vetoes bill that would have made unpaid court fees a barrier to voting | Frank ZufallWisconsin Examiner

Gov. Tony Evers recently vetoed a Republican-sponsored bill, AB87/SB95, that would have suspended the right to vote for Wisconsinites convicted of a felony who have served their sentence until they fulfill outstanding court-order obligations, such as fines, costs, restitution or community service. In Wisconsin, people who have served their criminal sentence for a felony, including incarceration and community service, parole, probation and extended supervision, are eligible to vote. But the proposed legislation would have required any outstanding requirements – “fines, costs, fees, surcharges, and restitution [and] any court-ordered community service, imposed in connection with the crime” – to be addressed in full before voting rights were fully restored. Read Article

Wisconsin Elections Commission deactivates roughly 192,000 voters during routine maintenance | Mia Thurow/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has deactivated over 192,000 voter registrations through the legally required four-year maintenance process, according to an Aug. 1 press release. The 192,369 individuals deactivated had not voted in the past four years and did not respond to mailing regarding their registration status, said Meagan Wolfe, WEC’s administrator. The commission is required by Wisconsin law to conduct voter record maintenance every two years to identify individuals and deactivate their registration status unless they notify their clerk with a desire to remain registered. Read Article

Wisconsin election officials wary of internet-linked e-pollbook options | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

More jurisdictions around the country are using commercial electronic pollbooks to check in voters, but many Wisconsin officials say they’re reluctant to give data to outside companies — and especially worried about using products that connect to the internet. Currently, the only e-pollbook option Wisconsin allows is Badger Book, which about 400 municipalities use. The product was designed by the Wisconsin Elections Commission and doesn’t connect to the internet. But it’s expensive and has limited features, clerks say, and officials in the largest jurisdictions, such as Madison, worry they wouldn’t get enough tech support if they used Badger Book. The worst-case scenarios for e-pollbooks getting hacked would be somebody stealing voters’ personal information, deactivating voter records, or making it look like a person had already voted, said Megan Maier, the deputy director of research and partnerships at Verified Voting. Meier and other experts said there is no known case of that happening. That risk would be mitigated, Maier said, if polling sites all had paper pollbooks printed out in addition to e-pollbooks. Read Article

Wisconsin Elections Commission plans order designed to stop repeat of Madison ballot snafu | Sarah Lehr/Wisconsin Public Radio

Wisconsin’s Elections Commission will work with Madison officials on an order designed to improve city policies and procedures, so that a recent snafu involving nearly 200 uncounted ballots doesn’t happen again. The commission learned in December that 193 absentee ballots from the city of Madison went uncounted in the Nov. 5 election. Those ballots would not have changed the outcome of any race or referendum at the local, state or national level. In January, the bipartisan commission voted to launch its own investigation into how the problem occurred and why it took more than a month for it to be reported to the agency. As part of that investigation, Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, and Don Millis, a Republican, took depositions from more than a dozen city and county staff members. Read Article

Wisconsin: US Appeals Court rules against town that removed voting machines last year | Rich Kremer/WPR

A northern Wisconsin town sued by the U.S. Department of Justice last year for not providing electronic voting machines to people with disabilities has lost its federal appeal. Thornapple’s town board passed a resolution to stop the use of electronic voting machines in June 2023. Court documents show the town’s former clerk Suzanne Pinnow cited “the controversial nature of electronic voting machines” as part of its justification. The DOJ sued Thornapple and the Rusk County Town of Lawrence for removing access to voting machines designed for people with disabilities. They said the decisions violated the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA. Officials in Lawrence negotiated a settlement and agreed to make at least one accessible machine available in future elections. Read Article

Wisconsin election officials to consider expanding e-pollbook options | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

When Madison residents went to vote in a special election this month, they didn’t have to stand in line according to their last name or wait for poll workers to flip through paper lists to find their names. For the first time, election officials there used electronic pollbooks to check voters in, allowing them to search for voters’ names and collect signatures on digital pads. They could also use the e-pollbooks to process absentee ballots, register new voters, and issue voter numbers, just as they did with paper poll books, but with less chance of error. The pilot program in the state capital offered a glimpse of both the technology’s potential — and its current limitations. Poll workers praised the state’s in-house e-pollbook system, known as Badger Book, for its speed and accuracy. But its high costs, limited vendor options, and a lack of state funding for support staff have stalled broader adoption, especially in large cities. Read Article

Wisconsin approves new rule for election observers | Wisconsin Law Journal

The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) voted to publish a new administrative rule addressing the conduct of election observers and their interactions with election officials after more than two years of bipartisan collaboration. On June 19, WEC commissioners voted 5-1 to approve the rule that intends to offer clarity and uniformity to election observation for the benefit of voters, election officials, and observers. The rule will take effect on Aug. 1 after it has been added to the administrative code as EL 4 and published in the Administrative Register at the end of July. The final rule order, which took more than two years to develop, specifies who can observe elections, defines the rights and limitations of what election observers may do, differentiates election observers from election inspectors, and creates a more streamlined and accessible set of instructions for election observers to follow during the election process. Read Article

Wisconsin proposal would require simple explanation of ballot questions | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Wisconsin Republicans want to require that all proposed constitutional amendments come with a plain-language explanation, a move that they say would help voters better understand complex ballot questions. The proposal has drawn broad support. But some lawmakers are concerned about whether the measure as proposed would leave the interpretation of ballot questions vulnerable to partisanship. And even some supporters say the bill should have more specific standards for what constitutes plain language. In its current version, the bill calls for the Legislature to pass a plain-language explanation along with any proposed constitutional amendment. The explanation would be drafted by the Legislative Reference Bureau, a nonpartisan legislative agency that helps draft bills, but legislators would be able to revise it. Neither the explanation nor the amendment would be subject to a governor’s veto. Read Article

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign sues Elon Musk, alleging million-dollar check giveaways were voter bribes | Bruna Horvath/NBC

A Wisconsin watchdog group has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk claiming that he unlawfully bribed voters with million-dollar checks and $100 giveaways in the state’s latest Supreme Court election. Wisconsin Democracy Campaign — a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that investigates election transparency — along with two Wisconsin voters, filed the suit against Musk, his super PAC America PAC and another Musk-owned entity called the United States of America Inc. In the suit, the plaintiffs claimed that Musk and his entities violated state laws that prohibit vote bribery and unauthorized lotteries. It also accuses Musk of conducting civil conspiracy and acting as a public nuisance. Read Article

Justice Department targets Arizona and Wisconsin over compliance with federal election law | Alexander Shur andJen Fifield/Votebeat

The U.S. Justice Department has sent letters to election officials in at least two key swing states, threatening action against the states if they don’t comply with provisions of a 2002 federal election law. Lawyers from the department’s civil rights division sent letters in recent weeks to both Arizona and Wisconsin. The Arizona letter said that state officials are not properly verifying voters’ identities as dictated by the Help America Vote Act, and warned of a lawsuit. The Wisconsin letter said the Wisconsin Elections Commission is not properly resolving administrative complaints as required by the same law, and threatened to withhold federal election funds over that issue. The Justice Department recently sued North Carolina also, claiming that the state has not been properly verifying voter identity. Read Article

Wisconsin Elections Commission chairwoman responds to warning letter from federal officials | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

U.S. Department of Justice officials are threatening to withhold funding from the Wisconsin Elections Commission over alleged violations of federal law but a top state election official says there’s no funding to cut. The Democratic chairwoman of the commission told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the commission doesn’t currently receive the funding federal officials are threatening to withhold and disputed the merits of the DOJ accusations. Even so, the Republican leaders of the state Legislature’s budget-writing committee on June 5 decided to delay voting on funding the state elections agency until they can review the DOJ matter further. Read Article

Wisconsin communities are free to use paper ballots, elections commission rules | Mitchell Schmidt | Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin’s smallest communities do not need permission from the Wisconsin Elections Commission to stop using electronic voting machines, the agency ordered this week. Under the commission’s decision, Wisconsin towns, villages and municipalities still must provide at least one electronic voting machine at a polling location to accommodate voters with disabilities. But other than that, nothing prevents communities with fewer than 7,500 residents to stop using the machines. The decision stems from a complaint filed against the town of Thornapple, in Rusk County, alleging the community violated state law when officials shifted from using voting tabulators to hand-counting paper ballots in last year’s April and August elections. Read Article

Wisconsin election officials seek more flexibility in proposed early-voting mandate | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Wisconsin Republicans are proposing an expansion of early voting, with new requirements for municipalities statewide, but some local officials say the one-size-fits-all mandate wouldn’t make sense for Wisconsin’s smallest communities. The proposal would require every municipality in Wisconsin, regardless of its size, to offer at least 20 hours of in-person absentee voting at the clerk’s office, or an alternative site, for each election. The bill’s authors say they want to reimburse local governments for the added costs, though they haven’t yet clarified how they would do that. Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, a Republican, said she wrote the bill after noticing the stark difference in early-voting availability between rural and urban municipalities. Read Article

Wisconsin election officials seek repeal of law that can risk ballot secrecy | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

When the clerk of Rock County, Wisconsin, gets a public-records request for images of election ballots, much of it is easy to fulfill. For most municipalities in the county, it’s just a matter of uploading a photo of the ballot that’s already captured when it gets tabulated. But for two of the county’s largest cities — Janesville and Beloit — it’s a lot more complicated, and time-consuming, because of a state law governing places that use a central counting facility for their absentee ballots. For those ballots, Clerk Lisa Tollefson must redact the unique identifying numbers that the law requires poll workers to write on each one. Otherwise, the number could be used to connect the ballots to the voters who cast them. And because the numbers don’t appear in the same place on each ballot, Tollefson must click through the ballot images one at a time to locate and blot out the number before releasing the images. Read Article

Wisconsin towns want to appoint election clerks instead of electing them | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

A couple of years ago, Lorraine Beyersdorff was ready to retire from her job as clerk of the Town of Texas, Wisconsin, after 34 years of service. “I will not run again,” she said in a community Facebook post in late 2022. “Nomination papers can be circulated for signatures beginning December 1st. If interested, call me for more information.” About a dozen people thanked her for a job well done. But no one filed nomination papers. Nobody called. And because of a quirk in Wisconsin law, no one from outside of the 1,600-person town could take the job. State law requires all elected town clerks — and the appointees that replace clerks departing mid-term — to live in the town where they serve. Beyersdorff, 73, knew there was another option: The town could switch from electing its clerk to appointing one. That would allow officials to consider candidates from outside the town’s borders. Read Article

Wisconsin clerk who failed to count November votes violated multiple policies, investigators say | Todd Richmond/Associated Press

The former clerk who somehow failed to count nearly 200 ballots in Wisconsin’s capital city didn’t break any laws but did violate multiple policies and her contractual duty to supervise elections and maintain professional standards, the results of a city-led investigation released Tuesday show. Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl resigned earlier this month amid city and state investigations into her conduct during the November elections. She said in a message to The Associated Press that she hadn’t seen the investigation’s findings and declined to comment. According to the investigation, Dane County canvassers discovered 68 uncounted absentee ballots in a tabulator bin on Nov. 12, a week after the election, and another 125 uncounted ballots in a courier bag the first week of December. Read Article

Wisconsin: Rules committee deadlocks on vote to kill election observer rules | Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner

Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) deadlocked Thursday on whether to object to a proposed administrative rule that would guide the conduct of election observers at polling places. The 5-5 vote moves the rule one step closer to going into effect because if the committee doesn’t take any action, it will be returned to the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to be implemented. Even though the rule was written by WEC with input from an advisory committee that included members of right-wing election conspiracy groups, election skeptics opposed the rule’s passage at a number of public hearings. Read Article

Wisconsin: Shouting match erupts at Elections Commission over Milwaukee ballot shortages | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A routine meeting of the Wisconsin Elections Commission erupted into a shouting match Thursday after one member attempted to discuss Milwaukee officials temporarily running out of ballots during the April 1 election. Commission chairwoman Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, threatened to eject Republican commissioner Bob Spindell for bringing up a topic that was not on the meeting’s agenda and refusing to stop after she ruled the comment out of order. Spindell ignored Jacobs’ order to cease discussing the matter, triggering an explosive back-and-forth with shouting and gavel pounding. The outburst took place during a rare in-person meeting of the commission in Madison. Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe and vice-chairman Don Millis, who were sitting next to the arguing commissioners, stared straight ahead during the spat without showing any emotion. Read Article