Officials to study voting in nursing homes
MADISON - The state Elections Commission unanimously launched a study Monday to determine when poll workers can go into nursing homes to help residents with voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
Election officials have been confounded during the pandemic by how to handle voting at nursing homes.
State law requires municipal clerks to dispatch what are known as special voting deputies to nursing homes to give residents an opportunity to vote. After attempting to make two visits, they can mail absentee ballots to the residents instead.
Visiting nursing homes often wasn’t possible last year because many nursing homes were letting few people in their doors. At the time, the bipartisan commission told election officials to mail absentee ballots to nursing home residents without first attempting to visit them in person.
But Republicans who control a legislative committee in February told the commission it couldn’t offer such guidance because of how the law is written.
Last month the commission advised clerks to check with nursing homes and visit in person if they were allowed inside for Tuesday’s election for state schools superintendent and local offices.
If the nursing homes told the clerks they wouldn’t be allowed inside, the clerks were to call two more times to find out if the facilities changed their stances. If they hadn’t, they were to mail absentee ballots to those residents.
The commission also started a lengthy process to establish a state rule that lawmakers could consider.
On Monday, the commissioners abandoned the effort to write a formal rule and instead directed their staff to study the issue. With vaccinations becoming more widely available and no looming elections after Tuesday, there is less of an immediate need for a rule.
State Sen. Steve Nass, a Whitewater Republican and leader of the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules, has threatened to take action against the commission if its policies on special voting deputies conflict with state law.