Major Changes Loom To Wisconsin’s Elections

Vote here sign. File photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The list of potential challenges and changes to how four 2024 Wisconsin elections will be run – ending with Nov. 5 votes for President, U.S. Senate and seats in the U.S. House and State Legislature – is stunning, and maybe even frightening.

On that list: Potential new districts for Assembly and Senate candidates. Court decisions on unmanned ballot “drop boxes,” now illegal, and the witness requirement to cast an absentee ballot. Constitutional amendments preventing non-citizens from voting and barring local governments from accepting third-party grants to help pay election costs.

There are also bills pending in the Capitol that, if they pass the Legislature and aren’t vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, could be in place for the 2024 elections. One would allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots the Monday before Tuesday voting. Another would specify a three-foot distance between election observers and voters stating their names and addresses.

And, will there be a Wisconsin court challenge to placing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on either the April 2 presidential preference ballot or the Nov. 5  general election ballot? A Colorado lawsuit cites a U.S. Constitutional provision that prohibits someone running for office who “engaged in insurrection” or gave “aid or comfort” to insurrectionists.

The four 2024 elections will be the Feb. 20 spring primary, the April 2 presidential primary and nonpartisan general election, the Aug. 13 partisan primary and the Nov. 5 partisan general election.

In an understatement, WEC Chairman Don Millis says, “It’s going to be a rocky year.”

When the term of Millis, a Republican appointee, as chair ends next spring, that will trigger another election-year change. A Democratic appointee is scheduled to become the next WEC chair.

Millis said the biggest challenge will be for WEC to provide week-to-week guidance to the 1,850 local clerks who actually conduct elections, and to voters, as decisions on challenges and changes are resolved.

One other major potential change may not happen, however.

A Dane County judge halted efforts by Republican senators to fire Elections Administrator Meagan Wolfe, who implements WEC decisions. The move to oust Wolfe was led by Senate Republicans, but Assembly Republicans are refusing to go along with it, or at least they were. A third-party group is running ads calling on Speaker Robin Vos to impeach Wolfe, and on Thursday Vos advanced the impeachment resolution.

“I don’t think we need that conversation right now in the Legislature,” Rep. Scott Krug, chairman of the Assembly Campaigns and Elections Committee, said during an Oct. 27 Wispolitics event.

The biggest potential change before the Aug. 13 partisan primary and the Nov. 5 general elections would be new district maps for the 99 Assembly members and 33 state senators.

On Nov. 21, the state Supreme Court will hold a public hearing on the challenge to current district lines Republicans drew after the 2020 census.

The Court’s new four-justice liberal bloc decided to hear the challenge. Justice Janet Protasiewicz, who before her April election called the maps “rigged,” refused to withdraw from the case and may be part of a majority that orders new maps before the Nov. 5 elections.

Timing of any ruling ordering new maps is critical, since current law says candidates for the Legislature can begin circulating nomination papers on April 15 and those nomination papers must be filed by June 1.

If new Assembly and Senate lines are drawn, the Supreme Court must also make other major decisions: When are the new boundaries effective? Is a new timeline for circulating and returning nomination papers needed? Should half of the 33 state senators, who were elected in 2022 and who are in the middle of four-year terms, also seek re-election next year?

Republicans who control the Legislature are also expected to give final approval to putting two constitutional amendments before voters on the April 2 ballot. If voters ratify both amendments then, the changes would be in place for the Nov. 5 general election.

One change would bar non-citizens from voting in local, state or national elections.

The second would bar the use of private funds to cover election costs. Republicans want to prevent a repeat of 2022, when a third-party group founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg handed out cash to local governments to pay for election costs. Republicans insist “Zuckerbucks” should not again meddle in local elections.

How did Millis describe the 2024 election cycle? “Rocky.”

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com