One-Hundred and Fifth Regular Session
TUESDAY, August 10, 2021
The Chief Clerk made the following entries under the above date.
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Petitions and Communications
State of Wisconsin
Wisconsin Ethics Commission
August 10, 2021
The Honorable, the Senate:
Pursuant to Wis. Stats. §13.685 (7), we are providing the enclosed information. Please visit the Wisconsin Ethics Commission’s Eye on Lobbying website, https://lobbying.wi.gov, for more detailed information about lobbyists, lobbying principals (organizations), and state agency liaisons. Early, Annie Jack L Marcus
Shepherd, Jeremey Jack L Marcus
Torres, Primitivo Voces de la Frontera Action, Inc.
Sincerely,
DANIEL A. CARLTON, JR.
Administrator
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State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
August 10, 2021
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist138634I am vetoing Senate Bill 203 in its entirety. This bill would create new requirements for how a municipality can conduct an election event where people return completed ballots and also would restrict who could deliver an absentee ballot on behalf of another voter.
I am vetoing this bill because I object to the limitations it places on municipalities that conduct absentee ballot collection events. In 2020, these innovative events allowed poll workers to answer questions about voting and registration, and to help registered voters return their ballots properly during the coronavirus pandemic. These events were helpful to our local governments and our voters, ensuring people had the opportunity to verify that their absentee ballots were completed properly before returning. While I appreciate that the bill attempts to codify a procedure for holding such an event, I do not approve of the way this bill would prevent municipalities from offering other important voter services and restrict the timeline during which the events could be held.
I also object to the additional restrictions regarding who may return a ballot on behalf of a voter. This bill would require that a person who cannot return their absentee ballot on their own either use one of a short list of approved relatives or guardians or designate another person in writing. Any person helping to return ballots would be limited to returning only two ballots, and they would have to be a registered voter in Wisconsin. These unnecessary restrictions would significantly reduce the circle of people who a confined voter could turn to for help with absentee voting. For example, the bill would not allow a 16-year-old grandchild to help their grandmother return her ballot simply because the grandchild is not old enough to vote. A trusted neighbor would be limited to helping only two elderly or infirm neighbors return their ballots, but not a third. Furthermore, requiring a voter to write a letter designating a non-family member to return their absentee ballot is an unfair and unnecessary burden on what is likely an already vulnerable voter.
Our state laws already prohibit a person from receiving and then failing to deliver official ballots, preventing their delivery in time, and destroying or concealing the ballots. This bill adds no additional security or fraud prevention beyond what our state laws already provide. One can easily imagine the ways that the measures proposed in this bill would result in voters being deprived of their fundamental right to vote. The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and to restrict that right is undemocratic.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
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State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
August 10, 2021
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist138635I am vetoing Senate Bill 204 in its entirety. This bill would make a series of changes to the proves of applying for and receiving an absentee ballot, including new signature requirements for applications, restrictions on automatically receiving absentee ballots, and prohibitions on sending absentee ballots or applications before they are requested by voters, among others.
I am vetoing this bill because I object to the significant and unnecessary changes this bill would implement that would make absentee voting more difficult and result in the disenfranchisement of voters across Wisconsin. Current law requires proof of identification when you first apply to vote absentee (and thereafter only if the information changes), and the signature requirement is met when a voter signs the ballot envelope to confirm they wanted to vote absentee. This ill would complicate this proves in several ways. The bill requires the Elections Commission to create a new form for applying to vote absentee, would require copies of voter identification each time, regardless of changes, and would require a signature separate from the ballot envelope for each application. Further, eligible electors cold no longer apply to receive absentee ballots for all elections in a calendar year but rather would need to apply to have absentee ballots sent for each individual primary and its associated election. And clerks could not send an absentee ballot application prospectively. Under this bill, most individuals interested in voting absentee in multiple election cycles would need to repeatedly send in an application and copies of their voter identification throughout the year, even if their information and identification had not changed. This proposed burdensome process is clearly designed to make it more difficult to vote absentee.
The bill also would pose significant new burdens to voters who are indefinitely confined because of age, physical illness, infirmity, or disability-in face it removes all indefinitely confined voters who applied for absentee ballots between March 12, 2020 and November 3, 2020. While indefinitely confined voters would be able to apply and receive absentee ballots automatically for the entire year, the bill layers on new requirements for the absentee ballot application process, requiring proof of identity or a statement from a U.S. adult citizen affirming identity, and adds another separate form and annual application process for people to qualify as indefinitely confined. The bill also directs a clerk to end such a voter’s receipt of absentee ballots if the voter chooses to not vote in an election or primary or if the clerk receives “reliable information” that the voter is not actually indefinitely confined. Requiring people who are disabled, elderly, or infirm to fill out separate applications every year to either obtain identification or find people to attest to their identity is overly burdensome to both voters and clerks. This bill would only greatly complicate absentee voting for those who need absentee voting the most.
Finally, the bill contains a series of other objectionable, unnecessary changes which would result in more work for already overextended local election officials. For example, it requires clerks on election day to post hourly updates on the number of absentee ballots transmitted, returned, and counted. It also would not allow a clerk’s initials on the absentee ballot to be preprinted or stamped. These changes create more work for officials but provide no benefit for ensuring our elections are free and fair.
The bill fails to provide meaningful additional security for elections, is likely to disenfranchise numerous voters, particularly in our most vulnerable populations, and makes the whole absentee voting process less efficient and less user-friendly, and all but guarantee the need for additional staff during elections.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
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State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
August 10, 2021
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist138636I am vetoing Senate Bill 205 in its entirety. This bill would modify voting at a qualifying nursing home residential care facility, shorten the time a voter in that type of facility could cast their ballot, and require the administrator of the facility to contact family members of the resident voter so that those family members supervise the voter while they cast their vote.
I am vetoing this bill because I object to shortening the time allowed to administer voting at a nursing home or assisted living facility. Current law requires special voting deputies to administer voting at a qualifying by 5 p.m. on the Monday before an election, ensuring flexibility to schedule voting in these locations. This bill would shorten the window so that they must be done by 5 p.m. on the sixth working day preceding the election. The bill provides no justification for this change to the voting window for this vulnerable population.
Among other provisions, the bill would also require the administrator of the facility to contact every family member of a resident voter for whom the facility has contact information so that those family members might supervise the voter while they cast their vote. The law already allows the administrator of a facility to contact family members for this purpose at the resident voter’s request. This bill deprives resident voters of their right to a private and independent vote by removing voter’s ability to choose whether family is contacted or not.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
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State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
