Senator Spreitzer Reacts to Republican Elections Bill That Caves to Republican Extremists
MADISON – Today, Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) released the following statement after Legislative Republicans introduced their elections bill package, which included legislation that allows the processing of absentee ballots on the day prior to the election, commonly known as Monday processing, as well as many provisions that would make voting harder for many Wisconsinites:
“Instead of reintroducing last session’s compromise version of the Monday processing bill, Rep. Krug has taken a good, bipartisan concept and filled it with partisan poison pills. The concept of pre-processing absentee ballots the Monday before election day has had bipartisan support for the last 6 years, starting in 2019 when I was a lead author of this legislation. Last session, Rep. Krug and I worked together to negotiate a compromise on a Monday processing bill. That bill passed the State Assembly, but unfortunately, Republican extremists in the State Senate blocked that compromise from a vote. Each session since 2019, a version of this bill has passed one house, but failed to pass the other, often amid last minute Republican demands to include unworkable restrictions in the bill. The bill introduced today by Rep. Krug continues down the path of Republicans proposing unreasonable trade-offs in an attempt to appease the most extreme members of their party. In this case, those trade-offs would make it harder for people to vote and more likely that legitimate votes would not be counted. Rep. Krug’s capitulation to extremists in the Republican Senate Caucus will not lead this new version of the bill to become law.
“Monday processing, while a very good idea, has never been about improving access for voters. It has primarily been about two things: increasing options for our clerks and election officials to efficiently do their job, and delivering the general public with election results earlier on election night. These are worthy goals. Our election officials have enough to do on election day. Letting them pre-process, but not tally, absentee ballots the day before lets them spread out their work and focus on in-person voters on election day. And getting results on election night before people go to bed has real value for improving voter confidence in our elections. But neither of these benefits should be pitted against the right to vote, or the right to have one’s vote counted. And this bill does just that.
“Many of the issues raised in this bill around drop boxes and witness addresses have been the subject of both litigation and vetoed Republican legislation in recent years, and their inclusion in this bill is a bald-faced attempt to hold Monday processing hostage in exchange for consideration of ideas that would never get Democratic support on their own merits. But with any election bill, we must ask ourselves: Does this bill make it easier or harder for eligible voters to vote, to have their votes counted, and to have the election results accurately tallied and reported? Unfortunately, the answer is that this bill makes it harder, and it is part of a Republican election package that includes other bills that make voting harder, make voting less private, make legitimate votes less likely to be counted, and make election results less likely to be accurately tallied. Wisconsinites deserve better than these political games and having their legislators cater to the most extreme wings of their parties. Instead, let’s introduce a clean bill that helps election officials do their jobs, but does not further erode the accessibility of voting and having legitimate votes counted.”
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
Mentioned in This Press Release
Recent Press Releases by State Sen. Mark Spreitzer
