Senate leader wants to allow earlier vote counting
MADISON - The incoming leader of the state Senate is pushing legislation to allow election officials to count absentee ballots before Election Day — a change some election officials have sought for years.
Republican state Sen. Devin LeMahieu, who will begin the new legislative session as Senate Majority Leader, said he wants the Legislature to expand the amount of time absentee ballots may be counted by July, according to the Associated Press.
“I have no idea where my caucus would be at on that but I would think (it would pass),” LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, told the AP. “As long as it’s secure, I would think we could get there.”
The proposal, which LeMahieu has previously pushed for unsuccessfully, comes in the wake of the November presidential election during which a massive influx of absentee ballots forced election officials in Milwaukee and elsewhere to count absentee ballots well after midnight because of a state law that requires election officials to wait until Election Day to begin counting.
President Donald Trump used the late vote tally to falsely claim that Milwaukee officials engaged in a “dump” of ballots, delivering Wisconsin to President-elect Joe Biden.
Wisconsin is one of just four states where election workers are not allowed to pre-process absentee ballots until Election Day. Pre-processing could cover a range of tasks including slicing open envelopes, fixing damaged ballots and feeding them through tabulator machines.
LeMahieu introduced a bill in 2019 that would have accomplished the same goal but said Thursday a new piece of legislation should be drafted to accommodate local officials who may not have the resources to prepare for Election Day and count absentee ballots.
Milwaukee election officials have asked for this change for years.
“The City of Milwaukee would wholeheartedly support this common sense change to election process and procedure. The allegations of vote dumps in the middle of the night could have been prevented if the Legislature had already passed such a bill,” Claire Woodall-Vogg, Milwaukee Election Commission director, said Thursday.
The morning after Election Day, Trump took to Twitter and claimed that people were “finding Biden votes all over the place — in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.”
Clerks had sought change for years
The false speculation that Biden’s overnight surge in Wisconsin was the result of mass voter fraud caused drama and headaches that could have been headed off years ago if lawmakers had previously made the change LeMahieu is proposing, local election clerks told the Journal Sentinel.
LeMahieu’s unsuccessful bill was supported by people such as Neil Albrecht, Woodall-Vogg’s predecessor. But it was also opposed by many municipal clerks who said it lacked a clear process and needed more work.
Brookfield City Clerk Kelly Michaels, chairwoman of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association’s advocacy committee, told the Journal Sentinel in November she is concerned about allowing clerks to pre-process mail-in ballots before Election Day.
She said it could lead to “whispers” about which candidate is in the lead even though the tallies would not be visible to clerks or anybody else until Election Day.
But “when you are opening envelopes and you are looking at that ballot, you are getting a sense,” Michaels said. “Not that you’re tabulating in your mind, but you’re certainly getting a sense.”
Michaels supports a narrower bill introduced last year by state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls. Brandtjen’s bill would have allowed voters to feed their in-person absentee ballots into the tabulator before Election Day, but would stop short of allowing preprocessing of mail-in ballots.