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Wisconsin Passes Ban on Private Funding to Bolster Election Administration

Election Law Society · March 8, 2023 · Leave a Comment

By Blair Page

Since 2016, threats and attacks on poll workers have increased rapidly. Egged on by former President Trump and his supporters, poll workers have been threatened and bullied out of their jobs. States around the country have now found it hard to recruit and retain poll workers.

In response, outside organizations have stepped up, raising money to hire and train poll workers around the country. Most notably, basketball great LeBron James teamed up with other athletes to create, More Than A Vote, a multimillion dollar effort that netted some 10,000 poll workers around the country.

These outside groups place great importance on states that have a history of electing candidates from both parties, swing states as they are known.

Considering the increased scrutiny our elections have faced, swing states like Wisconsin are in greatest need of poll workers to ensure that elections are run smoothly.

In Wisconsin, an evenly divided state where elections are often decided by a few thousand out of millions cast, Republicans in the state legislature have banned state and local governments from soliciting and accepting outside funds for the purpose of election administration.

It appears this is in direct response to the efforts in 2020 by outside groups to make sure that polling places are sufficiently staffed to administer elections. Since 2020, nearly 20 states have passed legislation or enacted regulations that have banned private funding for election administration.

This ban an outside funding is the latest in a long line of undermining confidence in our elections by Wisconsin Republicans. Republicans attacked ballot drop boxes and the process for counting mail-in ballots during the 2020 election.

It should be noted that this GOP sponsored bill was passed over the veto of Democratic Governor Tony Evers. The veto override by the GOP controlled legislature is in large part due to the aggressive gerrymander of the state’s legislative districts. For example, in 2020 Republican State Assembly candidates received 53.8% of votes yet won 61/99 seats. In 2018 they received 44.8% of the vote yet won 63/99 seats.

While liberal-leaning or connected groups provided most of the funding to support recruiting and paying poll workers, and Republicans have argued that private funds undermine elections, there is no evidence to suggest that these poll workers improperly influenced the outcome in any jurisdiction.

With Wisconsin again facing very competitive elections for the U.S. Senate and Governorship, having the elections run smoothly will be essential to ensuring trust in the electoral process.

While the ban is in place, it is unclear if the state will step in and provide adequate funding, and localities will likely struggle to cover the cost. A group of Senate Democrats have proposed a bill that will provide $20 billion in federal funds to states for the purpose of election administration. The bill faces an uphill battle in that chamber.

With the 2022 mid-term elections quickly approaching, and polling suggesting competitive races across the country, it is vital that voters of all political persuasions to trust that elections are run fairly and properly.

Audit Finds Wisconsin 2020 Elections Were “Safe and Secure” – What Comes Next?

Election Law Society · February 25, 2022 ·

By: Kayla Burris

The 2020 presidential election was a test of Wisconsin’s election system. Like other states, Wisconsin faced numerous legal challenges to the ways votes were cast and counted. However, as a battleground state in a tight race, calls of fraud were particularly loud. Wisconsin also conducted a recount in two of its counties and Republican groups continued calling for audits long after Biden was sworn into office.

The Republican-controlled legislature agreed that the fraud claims had merit and, voting along party lines, ordered an audit to “be conducted by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau.” Democrats were largely opposed to the audit, with Democratic Governor Tony Evers accusing Republican leaders of “drinking the Kool-Aid” and pushing baseless conspiracy theories about the election.

[Read more…] about Audit Finds Wisconsin 2020 Elections Were “Safe and Secure” – What Comes Next?

Political Process Breakdown: What Happens When the Political Branches Cannot Agree on a Map?

Election Law Society · November 8, 2021 ·

By: Kayla Burris

What happens when the governor and state legislature disagree on how to draw a state’s legislative districts? Should the courts get involved? And how soon should they get involved—at the beginning of the process, or closer to the primaries?

State and federal courts in Wisconsin are grappling with these questions. Two tandem tracks of cases are proceeding—one in the Wisconsin Supreme Court and one consolidated case in the District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

To set the scene, Wisconsin is one of the most politically divided states in the country with a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor—both of which are required to agree on a legislative map according to Wisconsin law. Thus far in the redistricting cycle, the two sides seem unlikely to come to an agreement on the new legislative map. The Democratic governor has said that “it’s unlikely he would sign into law any maps drawn by the Republican-controlled [l]egislature that are based on the current boundary lines that have solidified GOP majorities for decades.” The governor instead favors using a nonpartisan commission to draw the maps. The Republican-controlled legislature on the other hand argues for retaining the current maps to the extent possible under the law.

[Read more…] about Political Process Breakdown: What Happens When the Political Branches Cannot Agree on a Map?

A Bumpy Road to Voting in Wisconsin: Absentee Ballot Issues

vebrankovic · October 28, 2020 ·

By: Brianna Mashel

This election cycle has been turned on its head by safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to recent reporting by the Pew Research Center, about four-in-ten registered voters (39%) say they plan to cast their vote by absentee or mail-in ballot this year (or already have done so), compared with 33% who say they plan to vote in person on November 3, and 21% who have voted in person or plan to vote in person at an early voting location before Election Day. In fact, even before the onset of the pandemic, voters casting mail-in ballots increased nearly threefold between 1996 and 2016 – from 7.8% to nearly 21% – and the Census Bureau’s voter supplement data found seven-in-ten adults favor allowing any voter to vote by mail. Nonetheless, there is significant variation from one state to another on the handling of absentee and mail-in voting.  A case in point is Wisconsin, which has opted to rely on its existing absentee voting system even though it is currently one of the nation’s hot spots for COVID-19, with hospitals treating a record high number of patients with the disease.

In Wisconsin, absentee voting is relatively easy. Any registered voter is eligible to request an absentee ballot and voters do not need a reason or excuse to vote absentee. A ballot request and a copy of an acceptable photo ID with the applicant’s request must be received by the clerk no later than 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday before Election Day. The completed absentee ballot must be delivered no later than 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. This year, as many as two-thirds of all ballots, or roughly 2 million, are projected to be cast absentee. Although this process seems simple, Wisconsin voters have already experienced bumps in the road – literally.

[Read more…] about A Bumpy Road to Voting in Wisconsin: Absentee Ballot Issues

All Eyes on Absentee Voting: Wisconsin Races to Distribute Ballots After Green Light from Supreme Court

Election Law Society · September 21, 2020 ·

By: Mikaela Phillips  

The April 2020 presidential primary in Wisconsin drew national attention during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Even the United States Supreme Court weighed in, blocking the extension of absentee voting beyond the statutory deadline that requires ballots to be received by 8 p.m. on election day.

In April 2020, the state saw a surge in voting by mail. Absentee ballots accounted for roughly 6% of the votes tallied in the 2016 and 2018 general elections in Wisconsin. In stark contrast, over 60% of the total votes counted in the April primary were cast via absentee ballots. However, that figure does not paint the whole picture of rise in vote by-mail efforts. The state rejected over 23,000 mail-in ballots during the primary, most often due to witnesses’ failure to complete one line of the certification form.  [Read more…] about All Eyes on Absentee Voting: Wisconsin Races to Distribute Ballots After Green Light from Supreme Court

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