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Hi, folks,

I wrote a story a couple of weeks ago about the Wisconsin Senate — which made the unusual move of not having a dedicated election committee this legislative session — lagging behind the Assembly on election legislation. 

About half as many election bills have passed the Assembly as the Senate. Some frequent legislation, like a proposal to let clerks process ballots on the Monday before the election, didn’t even become a bill this session.

So when bills do pass both legislative chambers, it’s pretty notable. In the Senate’s last scheduled floor session on Tuesday, the chamber passed two election bills.

One, which already passed the Assembly, would bring the state in line with a 2022 federal law regarding the timing of casting electoral votes and certifying election results in presidential elections. 

The bill is designed to prevent the kind of post-election chaos that President Donald Trump and his allies sowed after the 2020 election. Last session, it passed the Senate but got hung up in the Assembly. 

The bill failing to pass last session led to a lawsuit after the 2024 presidential election because of a discrepancy between state and federal law directing when appointed presidential electors must meet to cast Electoral College votes. This bill, which Gov. Tony Evers is highly likely to sign, would fix that and other discrepancies between state and federal law.

The other bill to pass is a lot more divisive, and likely will get vetoed. 

That proposal would require the Wisconsin Elections Commission to hear administrative complaints against itself that allege violations of the federal Help America Vote Act. The bill would also require the Legislative Audit Bureau to vet the citizenship of current Wisconsin voters.

The bill comes after the U.S. Justice Department sent a letter to the election commission threatening to withhold federal election funds (spoiler: the state doesn’t receive much federal election funding) if the commission doesn’t start hearing complaints against itself. 

The commission in the past has cited a Wisconsin Supreme Court opinion that it would be “nonsensical” for the commission to hear complaints against itself.

As you can imagine, the provisions in this bill are politically divisive, and it’s all but certain to be vetoed (unless Evers suddenly takes the side of the U.S. DOJ in its faceoff with WEC, which probably would have worse betting odds than the Second Coming, reportedly at 23 to 1).

Barring any surprise special sessions, that’s probably it for election legislation this session. Let me know what questions you have about elections in Wisconsin. You can reach me at [email protected] or by replying to this email. 

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