WISCONSIN – This past Friday, the Democracy Defense Project – Wisconsin partnered with WisPolitics and the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service to host a bipartisan conversation around election administration and proposed reforms to increase public faith in the election system. See excerpts from the coverage below and follow the links for full stories.
WisEye: Democracy Defense Project: 2026 Wisconsin Election Administration Update
Full recording of Friday’s conversation with Rep. Scott Krug, Rep. Lee Snodgrass, Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood, Portage County Clerk Maria Davis, and the DDP-WI bipartisan board.
WAOW: Wisconsin Democracy Defense Project talks election reform with locals at UW-Stevens Point at Wausau
The DDP is made up of former leaders in both political parties who all say that elections in Wisconsin are safe and secure. However, they are not perceived that way.
“Right now we have, with the voter ID that we instituted many years ago now in the state of Wisconsin, I think we have very good elections,” said J.B Van Hollen, DDP Board Member and former Wisconsin Attorney General. “What we don’t have is the public confidence in our elections.”
The speakers at the roundtable highlighted what has voters frustrated, including the time it takes to count ballots — both in-person and absentee.
Fellow DDP Board Member and former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, said that reform should create clearance to, “process those ballots earlier on, so that folks are not waiting until 2, 3, or 4 a.m. to find out the results of an election.”
WSAW: Bipartisan group looking to improve trust in Wisconsin’s election system
Representatives Scott Krug and Lee Snodgrass may be from different parties, but they both want people in Wisconsin to trust the election system. They are working on legislation that would do just that.
“Knowing we won the election before we go to bed. That’s where 90% of the issues in Wisconsin elections have come from, our late time, late results. They get all the conjecture put on about late-night ballot dumps and all these other things that flow just because the election results tend to come in late for Milwaukee, because the way we set up the process, they can’t accomplish the goal as quick as we need them to,” said Krug.
…Former Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says he wants people to know we have safe and secure elections.
“We want to make sure that people have confidence in our elections. And a lot of people think that the elections are not appropriately run because a lot of times the count comes in too late. We can easily eliminate that by allowing clerks to tabulate absentee ballots earlier so that we can have timely results broadcast to the people,” explained Van Hollen.
Civic Media: Lawmakers visit Wausau to discuss elections reform proposals
State lawmakers are discussing proposals aimed at making changes to the state’s election system.
State Representatives Scott Krug (R-Rome) and Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) held a joint press conference last month to announce competing bills that would allow early processing of absentee ballots and regulate drop boxes statewide.
The representatives appeared on a panel on Friday in Wausau, hosted by the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service and WisPolitics.
