Wisconsin is debating how to conduct its elections. Here are some ways to improve the process for voters and poll workers.

Anya van Wagtendonk
Wisconsin Watch
Election workers, from left, Bay, who only wanted to use her first name, and Anna Jurena wait for voters at the Milwaukee Public Schools Administration Building during the Wisconsin primary election on Feb. 16.

Proposals to change Wisconsin’s voting system could determine how one of the nation’s top swing states picks congressional candidates, how it awards its 10 Electoral College votes, how fast results can be announced and who can use the increasingly popular method of absentee voting.

But the political divisiveness that caused Wisconsin to flip from red to blue by the slimmest of margins in the 2020 presidential race will likely continue, stymying all but the few changes that enjoy bipartisan support. A Republican-led Legislature and a Democratic governor mean that purely partisan priorities are unlikely to be enacted.

Democrats are generally seeking to make it easier to vote, citing national security assessments that the 2020 contest was among the most secure ever. Republicans insist the high-turnout election was rife with fraud — although election officials of both parties and judges at all levels have rejected those allegations — and are generally seeking to add more restrictions and safeguards.

In late February, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature began circulating a slate of bills that would, among other changes, tighten absentee voting and the definition of voters “indefinitely confined” to their homes because of age or disability, two components challenged by President Donald Trump’s campaign in Democratic-majority Dane and Milwaukee counties in a failed attempt to throw out votes. Three Democratic members of the Assembly Elections Committee called the proposals “a full-on assault on our elections and the ability for Wisconsinites to vote.”

But dramatic changes to Wisconsin’s election laws are unlikely in the short term, said David Canon, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Any efforts aimed at making it easier to vote aren't going to happen because the Republican leadership and state Legislature won't want to do that. Anything that's aimed at restricting access to voting won't happen because (Gov. Tony) Evers would veto that, and they wouldn't have enough votes to override the veto,” Canon said. “I think we're in status quo mode for the next two years, at least, with nothing really changing.”

There is some bipartisan agreement, including a proposal to bring ranked-choice voting to Wisconsin. In that system, congressional primaries would be nonpartisan, with the top five finishers, regardless of party, moving on to the general election, when they would be ranked by voters.

Another bipartisan idea, which failed to make it through the last session, would allow clerks to process absentee ballots before Election Day, which supporters say would enhance voter confidence by preventing a delay in declaring statewide winners.

Process ballots sooner

Election worker Josh Del Colle counts ballots at the Milwaukee Central Count location after the polls had closed for the evening, on Nov. 3. Proposals to allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day — and avoid such late-night vote counting — have some level of bipartisan support in Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin, Republicans and Democrats find some agreement around when absentee ballots can be processed. Wisconsin law bars processing until polls open on Election Day. In November, this meant that workers at Milwaukee’s central count, for example, worked until the wee hours of the morning, opening, unfolding and running hundreds of thousands of ballots through tabulating machines.

The Trump campaign capitalized on the late-night count to falsely claim that Milwaukee had “dumped” ballots that swung the election for President Joe Biden.

“What people didn’t understand is those votes came in in Milwaukee at 2 in morning because that was the first time the elections officials had the chance to get to the machines and feed in the ballots,” said Kathleen Dolan, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

An easy fix: Allow absentee ballots to be processed in advance of Election Day, experts say. In the last legislative session, lawmakers debated bipartisan legislation to allow this to happen — but the bill languished amid disagreement over the details.

Republican lawmakers are again taking up the issue, but divisions are emerging over whether to opt for early processing, or change the rules for early voting.

Electoral College, drop boxes debated

Joe Parker of Milwaukee votes at the Milwaukee Public Schools Administration Building during the Wisconsin primary election on Feb. 16.

Wisconsin is one of several states considering changing how to award electors.

As proposed, Wisconsin would award them by congressional district, rather than winner-takes-all. In 2020, this would have resulted in six of the state’s 10 electors going for Trump, rather than Biden, who narrowly won the state’s popular vote.

Because of Wisconsin’s partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, experts say the proposal would redistribute electoral power away from Wisconsin’s urban — and mostly Democratic — strongholds. Republican lawmakers supportive of these and other proposals say they would restore faith in the fairness of elections.

Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, who is sponsoring many of the not-yet-introduced bills, said he is concerned about the huge jump in the number of people who claim to be “indefinitely confined,” meaning they can vote absentee without presenting a photo ID.

Stroebel also criticized the proliferation of drop boxes in the November election. These are not regulated by state law, although elections officials say they comply with federal guidance on how they should be secured. The bill would require that boxes be “tamper-resistant and moisture-resistant” with a slot “only large enough to allow for the insertion of an absentee ballot.”

“Throughout 2020, gaps, loopholes and outright violations of the clear intent of the law plagued the election process,” Stroebel said in a statement. “The COVID-19 pandemic combined with a hotly contested presidential election were a tremendous stress on the system, and offered the Wisconsin Elections Commission and some — but not all — local election officials a chance to disregard the plain meaning of the law.”

Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser at the Democracy Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based voting advocacy group, favors the increased use of drop boxes that were prevalent during the November election. The City of Madison also created Democracy in the Park, in which voters handed absentee ballots to election officials at city parks.

GOP proposals would limit both practices.

Poll worker Patty Riley goes through paperwork while waiting for voters at Marshall High School on N. 64th St. in Milwaukee during the Wisconsin primary election on Feb. 16.

What other changes might improve the experience for voters and election workers alike?

Make absentee voting easier

In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, about 60% of Wisconsin voters cast an absentee ballot, either by mail or during the early in-person absentee period, for the Nov. 3 election. By contrast, less than one-third of voters cast absentee ballots for the 2016 general election.

Once voters experience the convenience of absentee voting, they tend to want to keep voting that way, Patrick said.

Wisconsin allows voters to apply for ballots by mail for all elections in a given year. Patrick said Wisconsin could establish a permanent list of voters who want to always vote absentee, rather than making a voter repeatedly reapply. The move would cut processing time and costs while still authenticating voters the first time they apply.

“It also helps election officials plan,” Patrick said, adding that clerks could better allocate resources between absentee and in-person voting.

False allegations by Trump and his allies that mail-in voting enables fraud convinced many voters that the results of the Nov. 3 election were tainted. But vote-by-mail has been used by voters of all parties, with Republican voters somewhat more likely to use that tool in the past, said Mark Gaber, of the Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for nonpartisan election administration.

“It has not historically been something that was seen as a partisan issue,” Gaber said.

Add more time to request ballots

Wisconsin also should adjust the timing of when voters can request absentee ballots and when ballots must arrive at clerks’ offices, Patrick said. Currently, voters have up to five days before an election to request an absentee ballot — often leaving insufficient time for postal delivery of ballots to voters and back to clerks’ offices, she said.

The state could also allow for postal delays by counting ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within a set time frame after the election. A federal court order initially enacted the option before the April 7 election, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that ruling hours before the polls opened, leaving many would-be absentee voters in the lurch.

Enhance ballot tracking

Another way to ensure on-time delivery is ballot tracking. Some municipalities in Wisconsin use barcodes to track ballots being sent out from clerks’ offices, but those trackers are not on the return envelopes — although voters can still check the MyVote website to see if their ballot arrived at the clerk’s office.

Implementing a two-way tracking system would increase transparency, said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It likely would attract support from both parties.

“I think Democrats liked them, because their main worries are about ballots not being received or returned, and a voter being disenfranchised,” he said. “For Republicans, I think it provides some security about the integrity of the election. ... If the election official ever thought that someone was fraudulently stealing ballots out of mailboxes and sending them, they could simply check the online tracking system, and the voter could do that as well.”

Clarify rules around 'ballot curing'

Wisconsin requires absentee voters to get a witness signature and a witness address on their absentee envelopes. Proponents say it offers a layer of authentication, while opponents say it erects an unnecessary hurdle, especially for people who live alone.

It also can lead to disenfranchisement: 1,434 ballots in November were rejected for insufficient certification.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has advised that clerks who receive absentee ballots with incomplete or missing witness addresses “shall do all that they can reasonably do to obtain any missing part of the witness address” — including making the correction themselves. A common error is people who witness their spouses’ ballots do not also fill in their address, which is required even if it matches the voter’s. Clerks may contact voters to let them know if their ballots are incomplete and arrange for them to fix it.

In November, the absence of a clear law around so-called ballot curing led to mistrust of this process. The Trump campaign’s recount petition challenged the authority of clerks to fill in witness addresses.

Diane Coenen, Oconomowoc city clerk, drops off absentee ballots to polling station Chief Inspector Arlene Ziety, as she makes her rounds during a primary election on Feb. 16. Coenen favors changes to election law to allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day.

Issuing definitive legal guidance around how clerks can respond to incomplete witness addresses would let Wisconsin avoid even the appearance of impropriety and create consistent enforcement of rules across municipalities, said Diane Coenen, Oconomowoc city clerk and former president of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association.

“We should make sure that everybody does the same processes in the state so there is no question of if things were done right,” Coenen said.
