A bill that would allow election officials in Milwaukee and some other Wisconsin communities to begin processing, but not counting, absentee ballots on the day before the election seems to have bi-partisan support in Madison.
But that may not be the whole story.
Currently, Milwaukee doesn't begin processing those ballots until election day, leading to late night vote reversals as most absentee ballots had been cast for Democratic candidates. That disappointed Republicans in the 2018 governor's race and 2020 presidential contest — who had gone to bed Tuesday night thinking their candidate won.
The State Assembly has already passed the Republican-authored so-called Monday processing measure.
But it's unclear if the GOP-controlled State Senate will finish work on the bill due to continuing opposition from conservative deniers of the 2020 presidential election results.
Local election officials spoke in favor the measure at a Senate committee hearing Tuesday. Among them, Claire Woodall, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission:
"It would significantly increase our capacity to efficiently and also accurately meet practical and statutory deadlines for processing absentee ballots, especially in the high turnout elections like an April election, or a November general election," Woodall said.
Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood, an elected Republican, also spoke in favor of Monday processing. She described the political landscape in her county, which includes the cities of Wausau and Mosinee. "We are a red county. We are a 60-40 red county, proud to have elected Donald Trump, Tim Michels, Ron Johnson and Tom Tiffany," Trueblood said.
Michels came up short in last year's governor's contest. But Johnson and Tiffany are in Congress and Trump is trying to get back to the White House in the 2024 presidential election.
But many conservative activists who falsely believe Trump carried Wisconsin in 2020 spoke against the measure. State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, (R-Menomonee Falls) was first up, contending the bill could lead to election fraud.
"I think that this bill is one about speed, making sure we can get done timely, than it is necessarily about making sure we have security," Brandtjen said.
Gov. Tony Evers (D) has promised to sign the Monday processing bill if it reaches him in a "reasonable format" — as he told Wisconsin Eye in October. But that would perhaps require the State Senate to ignore the election deniers.
Editor’s note: A portion of the audio is from WisconsinEye.
