The Senate today approved three election-related bills, sending one to the governor that would allow candidates to be withdrawn from the ballot without first having died.
The withdrawal proposal, which passed 19-14 was prompted by former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s inability to get his name off the ballot in Wisconsin after turning in nomination papers that qualified him to be listed. Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim, D-Appleton, was the only Dem who voted in favor.
Current law prohibits candidates from being removed from the ballot after submitting nomination papers unless they die. AB 35 would create a new path for candidates to withdraw from the ballot after submitting nomination papers.
Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, said he’s generally in favor of the bill, but raised concerns that it lacks a mechanism for a party to replace their primary winner on the general election ballot should the primary victor decide to drop out.
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He said it could result in a situation where a safe seat for one party could end up with no candidate on the general election ballot of the party that’s heavily favored in the district.
“I don’t think that’s what anyone intends, but that is the unintended consequence this bill creates,” he said.
Nobody spoke in favor of the bill or countered Spreitzer’s argument.
AB 149, passed in a voice vote, would allow a party’s chair to nominate electors if the party doesn’t have any incumbent state officials or candidates for the Legislature or state office. The measure was introduced after the Wisconsin Green Party did not have anyone who qualified as an elector last year because it had failed to put up any legislative candidates in the fall.
Both bills cleared the Assembly in June and now head to the governor.
SB 270, also passed in a voice vote, would allow someone to appeal in court a Wisconsin Elections Commission decision regarding a complaint, regardless of whether they have suffered an injury to a legally recognized interest. The Assembly has yet to take up the bill.
By Adam Kelnhofer, for WisPolitics-State Affairs.
