A proposed bill in the state Legislature could, backers say, lead to earlier election night results in Milwaukee and many other Wisconsin cities. But the measure is still taking shape.
Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) said he easily remembers the late night losses of Gov. Scott Walker in the 2018 governor's contest, and President Donald Trump in the 2020 Wisconsin presidential election.
"If you think back on the issues of the 2018 election and the 2020 election, there's always been this idea of the ballot dump at the end of the day, right? New ballots showed up. Something has to happen, the guy I voted for was leading before I went to bed. I woke up, and someone else had won. 'What the hell's going on? Something's wrong. There's fraud!'" Krug said at a legislative hearing Tuesday.
Krug said there wasn't fraud, what did take place was Milwaukee and some other cities finally completing their tallying of tens of thousands of mail-in or in-person absentee ballots. State law prevents communities from starting to process the early vote ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
The bill that received a public hearing in the Assembly Elections Committee, chaired by Krug, would change the processing start, but not vote counting, to 7 a.m the day before the election. The lawmaker says that should speed up Tuesday night results, and for some people, restore trust in elections.
"People expect efficiency. And, if you look at anything else we do in this state, we're not always the most efficient. But we can, in this circumstance, be as efficient as possible," Krug said.
The measure has partial backing from Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall. But she said she doesn't like a recently added amendment, saying it threatens to eliminate any efficiency gains.
"This language states that absentee ballots canvassed under this subsection may not be processed through automatic tabulating equipment, and votes may not be tallied until after the polls close on Election Day. As written, this language seems to insinuate that we would not be able to process any ballots through the tabulator until after 8 p.m. on election night," Woodall said.
She continued, "We are currently able to begin canvassing, including processing ballots through the tabulator, beginning at 7 a.m. It is only the tallying of those results that are held until after the close of the poll. While fast and efficient, processing ballots though the tabulator does take time and attention to detail," Woodall said.
There's also concern about the early absentee processing bill, from a lawmaker who has been loyal to Trump's false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 race.
Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls) said moving the absentee vote processing to Monday would mean many clerks would change set-up of the machines and voting room to Saturday or Sunday.
"So, that means there will be additional costs, and I can guarantee you the message we're hearing today is, 'It's gotta be done fast! It's gotta be done fast! That is not the point of an election. The point is to be secure," Brandtjen told the committee.
Rep. Krug said talks will continue on the measure. But he's hoping to have a new vote processing timetable in place for next year's elections.
However, Democrats want Krug to promise that other provisions of the bill, like requiring the state to verify voters' citizenship status, will be stripped from the legislation.
Editor’s note: A portion of the audio is from WisconsinEye.
