Rep. Scott Krug said he hopes to introduce a bill in the next couple of months to allow election clerks to process absentee ballots earlier, avoiding election night “ballot dumps.”
The Arkdale Republican said at a June 20 WisPolitics event on elections administration in Appleton he’s already been talking to the governor’s office and other lawmakers about the bill. A similar bill passed the Assembly last session but stalled in the Senate.
And Oconto County Clerk Kim Pytleski said allowing clerks to begin processing ballots earlier would increase election integrity and transparency.
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She said when clerks begin processing ballots on election day, observers have to watch the processing as well as observing regular election day activities. Pytleski said letting clerks start early would allow observers to be more focused.
Pytleski added this would “allow people to go to bed Tuesday night knowing the results of the elections.”
Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton, and Krug, members of the Assembly elections panel, said they were able to push a bill forward in the Assembly last year that would allow clerks to start processing on Monday. But it ran into roadblocks with the Senate.
“While we were able to make the case to our various caucuses that this is the right thing to do, that this makes sense, that this is going to help instill everybody’s confidence in elections and remove the perception that there are something nefarious going on with ballot dumps, we were not able to make that happen in the Senate,” Snodgrass said.
Krug said there’s support from both parties in the Assembly, but the Senate will again prove a challenge because of the division within the chamber.
He said last session one concern was that the bill was introduced too close to the election, so Krug said it will be ideal to introduce the bill in the next month or so and hopefully get public hearings this fall and passage by winter.
Panelists agreed election integrity and promoting public trust in elections are important.
Krug also focused on the importance of having conversations with election officials and clerks to determine the best legislation. He said these discussions are beneficial “just to know that the input that we’re getting matters and that the input that you’re giving is actually turning to results.”
Part of today’s discussion centered around a recent poll about the April election from the nonpartisan Democracy Defense Project on voter confidence in elections. The poll found voter faith is increasing but that Wisconsinites would like election reforms.
Former GOP Attorney General JB Van Hollen, represented the bipartisan Democracy Defense Project, a multistate group founded to inform voters about election integrity and to restore faith in the elections process.
“Election integrity is tremendously important, and people’s confidence in elections is tremendously important,” Van Hollen said.
Van Hollen said it is important to educate voters on how the election system works and why it works.
Pytleski also shared support of the new rules providing more guidelines for poll workers and election observers. She said these guidelines can help give Wisconsinites more trust in the process.
Snodgrass said the rules package is not perfect but “gives us a guideline that we can refer to.” She said now there’s a clear process for election observers for “if somebody feels aggrieved.”
Krug, though, said he would generally prefer considering solutions legislatively rather than administratively.
