CONTACT: Michels Press Office
press@michelsforgovernor.com
West Allis, WI – Today, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) meets to elect its next chairman. Republican Businessman Tim Michels, the outsider running for governor, released the following statement declaring the election of this chairman should be its last, and vowed to disband the body when elected.
“I’m a builder. My first instinct is not to blow things up. After witnessing the dysfunction at the Wisconsin Elections Commission, I knew drastic reforms were necessary,” said Michels. “I had been a strong supporter of the Walker-Kleefisch administration and had thought the structure of their creation was still salvageable. In the month since I’ve been crisscrossing the state on this campaign, I’ve heard from many who appreciate my business-like approach but believed the WEC was simply too fundamentally flawed from the beginning.
“At the Republican Party of Wisconsin Convention this weekend, I may have only given a 12 minute speech, but I spent the better part of two days hearing from delegates on a variety of issues. In fact, I spoke at length with Bob Spindell about this as well. So, while this evolution may be uncommon in politics, I’m not a politician. I’ve come to the conclusion the WEC is not salvageable. To have non-elected officials overseeing the administration of elections has proven to be fundamentally flawed. I do not want to empower Attorney General Josh Kaul, who was Hillary Clinton’s lawyer, or Doug LaFollette who has been the Secretary of State forever. But when I’m governor, WEC will be history. I was a strong supporter of Scott Walker, but the creation of WEC was a huge mistake.”
The lynchpin of the Michels Election Blueprint is the passage of the Election Uniformity Constitutional Amendment, empowering voters to enforce their civil and constitutional rights and fight back if ever again subjected to such unfairness. Other provisions include:
- Repeal of all previous WEC election guidance and freezing the issuance of new guidance.
- Prohibit re-hiring of any WEC staff that participated in the issuance of any formal guidance that failed to comply with existing law, as has been determined by the Legislative Audit Bureau.
- Create a provision allowing the governor to remove and replace any election official held in contempt of court for failing to immediately cure a polling place violation, including any wrongful denial of observer rights.
- Ban on special interests – including private individuals and private organizations – from funneling money for election administration through local election officials (Zuckerbucks).
- Ban on unmanned ballot drop boxes.
- Clean up the poll lists twice a year, purging of dead and inactive voters.
- Require every county to designate an available election duty judge to be available for hearings on a maximum notice of thirty minutes to hear and resolve emergency Election Day complaints related to polling place violations, including any wrongful denial of observer rights.
- Address the flood of indefinitely confined voters from 2020 by making them reapply and show photo ID to verify their claim.
- Uniformly enforce implementation of absentee ballot laws and legal standards.
- Ban on pop-up polling places.
- Prohibit the closing of regular polling places less than 60 days before an election.
- Strengthen nursing home voting protections for our seniors, while ensuring swift prosecution for violations.
- Pass first consideration of the Voter Uniformity Amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution, empowering voters to enforce their civil and constitutional rights and fight back if ever again subjected to such unfairness.
“Every Wisconsin voter, no matter whom they support, should have equal access to their ballot and once their vote is cast, every ballot should be handled and tabulated the same way,” said Michels.
For more information, see: MichelsBlueprint.com.
