West Bend, Wis. (March 18, 2022) – In an effort to protect our citizens’ democracy and ensure elections are truly free and fair and be conducted impartially and uniformly, and without interference from those who would seek to manipulate the process for personal gain, County Executive Schoemann is pleased to announce today that he has signed 2021 Resolution 87, which was unanimously passed by the County Board on March 9, 2022. The formal signing will take place Monday, March 21, at 5:30 p.m. in the main lobby of the Herbert J. Tennies Government Center, 432 E. Washington, West Bend.

According to County Board President Don Kriefall, who initiated the Resolution for the County, “Elections must be secure, transparent and administered uniformly with proper safeguards that will ensure that the public faith in our election system remains strong. We cannot conduct our elections in a manner that has our citizens
questioning their validity. By adopting Uniformity in Election Laws, elections will defend, preserve and uphold the sanctity of our most sacred right as citizens.”

As part of the Resolution, the following question will be added to the November 8, 2022, ballot as an advisory referendum: “Should the Wisconsin Legislature prepare and place on the statewide ballot a Constitutional Amendment requiring that election administration, access to ballots, and counting of ballots be nearly uniform as practicable?”

“This is not a partisan issue,” said County Executive Josh Schoemann. “In Wisconsin, we have a constitutional guarantee to taxation uniformity. Washington County is leading by example and by adopting Resolution 87, giving the people the opportunity to tell their elected officials if they believe in constitutional election uniformity. I strongly encourage every county in the state to place this advisory referendum on their ballot in November to increase and restore the public’s faith in elections.”

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