Early voting limits
sow confusion before February election.
Wednesday’s move by lawmakers to rein in early voting in Wisconsin will disenfranchise voters and create confusion for election officials already awaiting a court ruling on the issue as they head into a February primary, election officials and observers said.
“This will create an unnecessary hardship for a lot of voters. And I don’t think creating unnecessary hardship is consistent with democracy,” said Neil Albrecht, executive director of the Election Commission for the City of Milwaukee, where almost 10 percent of voters cast in-person absentee ballots in November’s midterm elections.
Erin Grunze, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, said the move is inconsistent with its position that elections should be “free, fair and accessible to all.”
“Anytime you reduce access to the polls, it’s going to disenfranchise voters,” said Grunze. “The league’s position is that we shouldn’t be curbing early voting. We should be opening it up so all communities can enjoy the larger window.”
Republican lawmakers in both houses voted early Wednesday to limit early voting to two weeks — part of a slate of measures being taken up during a lame-duck session called by Republicans to curb the powers of incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and
Attorney General Josh Kaul.
Republicans have said the move was needed to create consistency across the state.
But, much like voter ID laws and other restrictions, it is widely seen by critics as a move to curtail voting, especially in large, urban areas that tend to vote Democratic. Many point to the latest governor’s race, which was decided by 30,000 votes.
In Milwaukee County, for example, more than 70,000 people voted early, and about 11,000 of those did so more than two weeks before Election Day. The county voted for Evers by a 2-to-1 margin.
The vote comes as election officials await a decision by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case that paved the way for Milwaukee and other communities to expand their early voting hours in recent years.
In that case, U.S. District Judge James Peterson in 2016 struck down election laws modified in recent years by Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers as unconstitutional, including a two-week limit on early voting.
The attorney for the organization that filed the lawsuit, One Wisconsin Institute, has vowed to challenge the latest restriction. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said he is confident it will stand because it allows for weekend and evening voting.
Meanwhile, election officials are preparing for a February primary election. That could include a hotly contested state Supreme Court race, if more than two candidates file for the post.
“This creates a lot of uncertainty for municipal clerks,” said Albrecht, who has sought a legal opinion from the Milwaukee city attorney’s office on how to proceed. “When we’re confused and uncertain, certainly voters are confused and uncertain, and I don’t think that benefits the state.”
Wisconsin is among 38 states plus the District of Columbia that allow some type of early voting, also known as in-person absentee voting, according to the National Council of State Legislators. Time periods vary by state, from 45 days to less than a week, with the average at 19 days, it said.
Use of early voting has expanded in recent years. In the most recent midterms, every Milwaukee County municipality offered some type of early voting, some as early as September, according to the state.
In Milwaukee, the number of people who voted early rose by 140% from the 2014 midterms to 2018, according to Albrecht.
Municipal clerks said Wednesday that voters have come to expect access to early voting as a convenience; that limiting access burdens municipalities, which must then process votes in a shorter period; and that it should be up to individual communities to set their own limits.
“Politics aside, when you’re looking at the limited resources we have when planning an election, we feel that the (local) clerk is the best one to decide what they need to take care of their voting public,” said Kelly Michaels, Brookfield city clerk and president of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association, who was speaking for herself, not the organization.
“I think your local elected officials are closest to the needs of their communities.”