AB434: Bill Text

LRB-3140/2

JTK&RJM:cmh:jf

1999 - 2000 LEGISLATURE

1999 Assembly BILL 434

August 19, 1999 - Introduced by Joint Legislative Council. Referred to Committee on Campaigns and Elections.

AB434,3,10 An Act to repeal 5.25 (4) (b), 5.35 (6) (a) 4., 5.55 (form), 5.58 (2) (b), 5.64 (1) (c), 5.64 (2) (a) and (b), 5.64 (3) (intro.), 6.865 (2), 6.92 (1) to (6), 6.925 (1) to (6), 7.15 (1) (cs), 8.17 (2), (3) and (4) (a) and (b), 10.66 (1m) (a), 10.66 (3) (b), 10.76 (1r) (a) and 10.76 (3) (a); to renumber 5.64 (2) (c); to renumber and amend 5.55 (intro.), 5.58 (2) (a), 5.62 (1) (b), 5.62 (2), 5.64 (1) (e), 5.64 (3) (a), 5.64 (3) (b), 6.92 (intro.), 6.925 (intro.) and 8.17 (4) (c); to consolidate, renumber and amend 6.865 (intro.) and (1); to amend 5.01 (4) (a), 5.05 (1) (e), 5.15 (6) (b), 5.25 (1), 5.37 (3), 5.58 (1c), 5.58 (1r), 5.58 (2m), 5.60 (1) (intro.), 5.60 (1) (b), 5.60 (8) (a), 5.62 (1) (a), 5.62 (5), 5.64 (1) (intro.), 5.64 (1) (a), 5.64 (1) (b), 5.64 (1) (d), 5.64 (1) (f), 5.65, 5.81 (2), 6.15 (3) (b), 6.24 (1), (2) and (3), 6.24 (5), 6.275 (1) (c), 6.28 (1), 6.29 (1), 6.30 (3) (c), 6.77 (2), 6.79 (intro.), 6.79 (1), 6.79 (2), 6.79 (5), 6.80 (2) (e) and (f), 6.85, 6.86 (1) (b), 6.86 (3) (a), 6.87 (2), 6.88 (1), 7.30 (2) (a), 7.51 (2) (e), 7.51 (2) (g), 7.51 (4) (a), 7.53 (1), 7.53 (2) (d), 7.53 (3) (a), 7.60 (2), 7.60 (4) (a), 7.60 (4) (b), 7.60 (4) (c), 7.60 (5), 7.60 (6), 7.70 (3) (d), 7.70 (3) (f), 8.05 (1) (j), 8.05 (3) (d) and (e), 8.05 (5), 8.10 (3) (intro.), 8.10 (6) (a), 8.11 (1) (d), (2) and (2m), 8.12 (2), 8.15 (4) (a), 8.17 (1) (a), 8.17 (5) (b), 8.20 (3), 8.20 (9), 8.21, 8.35 (2) (a), 8.40 (2), 8.50 (1) (a), 8.50 (1) (b), 8.50 (2) (a), 8.50 (4) (fm), 9.01 (1) (ag) 1. and 2., 9.01 (2), 9.01 (5) (a), 9.01 (7) (a), 10.02 (3) (b) 1., 10.02 (3) (b) 2., 10.02 (3) (b) 2m., 10.02 (3) (b) 3. and 4., (c) and (d), 10.82 (1) (e), 10.82 (2) (d), 10.82 (3) (d), 10.82 (4) (d), 10.82 (5) (c), 11.02 (3), 11.03 (1), 11.60 (4) and (5), 24.66 (4), 32.72 (1), 38.08 (1) (a) 1., 59.05 (2), 59.08 (7) (b), 60.30 (4) (b), 60.62 (2), 60.74 (5) (b), 60.785 (2) (a), 61.187 (1), 61.46 (1), 62.13 (6) (b), 64.39 (2), 66.021 (5) (a), 66.022 (3), 66.023 (4) (e) 1. and 2., 66.024 (4) (a) and (b), 66.027, 66.028 (6) (a) and (b), 66.059 (2m) (b), 66.061 (1) (c), 66.075 (5), 66.521 (10) (d), 66.77 (3) (a) 1., 66.94 (4), 67.12 (12) (e) 6., 81.01 (3) (b), 86.21 (2) (a), 92.11 (4) (c), 119.48 (4) (c), 119.49 (2), 120.06 (6) (b), 120.06 (7) (a), 120.06 (7) (b), 121.91 (3) (a), 125.05 (1) (b) 5., 197.04 (1) (b), 197.10 (2), 755.01 (4) and 778.135; and to create 5.02 (26), 5.25 (4) (d), 5.51 (8), 5.62 (1) (b) 2., 5.62 (2) (b), 5.64 (1) (e) 2., 5.64 (1) (eg), 5.655, 6.77 (3), 7.08 (5), 7.10 (5), 7.10 (6), 7.15 (1) (L), 7.21 (2m), 8.10 (6) (bm), 8.17 (5) (bm), 8.37, 9.01 (1) (ag) 2g. and 2r., 11.02 (3e), 67.05 (3) (am) and 120.06 (8) (dm) of the statutes; relating to: absentee voting qualifications; late voter registration; location of polling places; reports on impediments to voting; selection of party committeemen and committeewomen; recount fees; delivery of recount petitions to affected candidates; minutes of recount proceedings; certifications by circulators of nomination papers and election-related petitions; presidential ballots; maintenance of poll lists in an electronic format; an elector's residency for voting purposes after municipal annexation; qualification of political parties for separate positions on partisan primary and election ballots; the date of special elections; the composition of the county board of canvassers; eligibility of adult children of overseas electors to vote in this state; reporting of election returns by ward; authorizing a county board of election commissioners to bring civil actions for violations of the campaign financing law; administration of elections for joint municipal judges; depositing ballots in ballot boxes; the time for a hearing on recount appeals; write-in absentee ballots; consolidated paper ballots; filing of referenda questions; ballot design; filing of declarations of candidacy and recording of votes received by write-in candidates in certain elections; the procedure for challenging electors; terms of office of town officers; requiring a referendum and granting rule-making authority.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

This bill is explained in the Note provided by the joint legislative council in the body of the bill.

For further information see the state and local fiscal estimate, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.

Prefatory note: This bill was prepared for the joint legislative council's special committee to review the election process.

I. DATE OF SPECIAL ELECTIONS

Generally, under current law, the date of a special election may not be less than 62 days nor more than 77 days from the date of the order requiring the special election. This bill provides that the date of the special election may not be less than 92 days nor more than 107 days from the date of the order requiring the special election.

II. REGISTRATION AND VOTER PARTICIPATION

•Voting Absentee

Under current law, the authority to vote absentee is restricted to electors who will be absent from the municipality in which they are qualified electors on election day for any reason or who because of age, sickness, handicap, physical disability, jury duty, service as an election official or religious reasons cannot appear at the polling place in their wards.

This bill authorizes absentee voting by any qualified elector who for any reason is unable or unwilling to vote at the polling place.

•Late Voter Registration

Under current law, the deadline for voter registration is 5 p.m. on the 2nd Wednesday preceding the election. Registrations made by mail must be delivered to the office of municipal clerk or board of election commissioners or postmarked not later than the 2nd Wednesday preceding the election. Voters may register after this deadline in person at the office of the municipal clerk or board of election commissioners or at the proper polling place on election day.

This bill authorizes a municipal clerk to accept a registration in any manner after the 2nd Wednesday preceding an election, if the clerk determines that the registration list can be revised to incorporate the registration in time for the election without creating a secondary registration list or separate registration material to accommodate the late registrant.

•Location of Polling Places

Under current law, the governing body of a city, village or town establishes polling places, except that the city board of election commissioners establishes polling places in cities over 500,000 population. So far as practicable, the places chosen must be public buildings.

This bill permits the authority charged with establishing polling places to choose a nonpublic building for this purpose if a public building is not practicable, as under current law, or a nonpublic building better serves the needs of the electorate.

•Challenging Electors

Under current law, an election inspector must challenge an elector's qualifications to vote if the inspector knows or suspects that the elector attempting to vote is unqualified. In doing so, the inspector must administer an oath to the challenged elector and must ask various questions specified in the statutes designed to aid in determining the elector's qualifications. The inspector may also ask any other questions to determine the elector's qualifications. The statutory questions are as follows:

"(1) If challenged as unqualified on the ground that the person is not a citizen: Are you a citizen of the United States?

(2) If challenged as unqualified on the ground that the person is not a resident of the ward where the person's vote is offered:

(a) When did you last come into this ward?

(b) Did you come for a temporary purpose only, or for the purpose of making it your home?

(c) Did you come into this ward for the purpose of voting here?

(d) Have you now and have you had for the last 10 days a voting residence in this ward? If so, what is the particular description, name and location of your residence?

(e) If the answer to par. (d) is no, then: Have you moved from the ward after the close of registration?

(f) Have you registered to vote at this election at any other place within or outside this state?

(g) Have you applied for an absentee ballot at any place in this or any other state?

(h) If single, do you board for part of the week, month or year with your parents?

(i) If you have no parents, or are self-supporting, have you registered to vote in this ward?

(j) Will you file your next state income tax return as a resident of this ward?

(3) If challenged as unqualified on the ground that the person is not 18 years of age: Are you 18 years of age to the best of your knowledge and belief?

(4) If challenged as unqualified on the ground that the person has made or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of the election:

(a) Have you made, in any manner, any bet or wager depending upon the result of this election, or on the election of any person for whom votes may be cast at the election?

(b) Are you in any manner, directly or indirectly, interested in any bet or wager depending in any way upon the result of this election?

(5) If challenged as unqualified on the ground that the person has been convicted of treason, felony or bribery and not been subsequently restored to civil rights:

(a) Have you ever been tried or convicted in this state of any crime? If yes, then—

(b) Of what crime, when and in what court were you so convicted?

(c) Have you in any manner since the conviction been restored to civil rights, and if yes, how?".

Challenges to an elector's qualifications may also be made by other electors who know or suspect that an elector is not qualified to vote. In such a case, the elector making the challenge is asked similar questions, which are also specified in the statutes, designed to elicit information about the challenged elector's qualifications.

This bill repeals the statutory questions used when an elector's qualifications are challenged. Instead, the bill requires the elections board, by rule, to determine the questions to be asked when an elector's qualifications are challenged.

•Report on Impediments to Voting

Under current federal and state law, all polling places, with limited exceptions, must be accessible to handicapped and elderly voters. Until 1994, federal law also required the chief election officer of each state to report to the federal election commission every two years the number of accessible and inaccessible polling places in the state and the reasons for any instances of inaccessibility. State law requires the executive director of the state elections board to transmit a copy of each such report to the legislature. Federal law, however, no longer requires this report.

This bill deletes the current reporting requirements and instead requires the state elections board to submit a biennial report on the impediments faced by elderly and handicapped voters in the state to each house of the legislature for distribution to the appropriate standing committees.

•Voting Residence After Annexation

Under current law, when territory of a municipality becomes part of another municipality, an elector of the territory must vote in the municipality in which the territory is included on the day of the election.

This bill provides that when such territory becomes part of another municipality fewer than 10 days prior to an election, an elector must vote in the municipality in which the territory was included prior to the change.

•Children of Overseas Electors

Under current law, the adult dependent children of members of the armed forces and merchant marine, federal employes and peace corps volunteers who are stationed abroad may vote in elections in this state in the ward or election district where the parent who provides support for the children is entitled to vote. This bill extends the privilege of voting, in federal elections only, to the adult citizen children of other U.S. citizens who are residing overseas, subject to approval at a statewide referendum to be held in November 2000.

•Depositing Ballots in Ballot Boxes

Generally, under current law, when an elector has completed voting his or her ballot, the elector may either deposit the ballot in the ballot box or deliver it to an election inspector for deposit in the ballot box. However, in certain situations, electors are not given such an option. For example, persons otherwise qualified to vote, but who have not resided in the state for 10 days prior to the date of the presidential election, may vote for president but the statutes provide that such electors' ballots must be given to an election inspector who must deposit the ballots in the ballot box. Conversely, at partisan primaries and the presidential preference primary when paper ballots are distributed to electors, the statutes provide that an elector must place the ballot in the appropriate ballot box and do not provide the option for an inspector to deposit the ballot. This bill amends current law to specifically provide that, in these situations, the ballots may be either deposited directly into the ballot box by the electors or given to the inspector who must deposit them into the ballot box.

III. ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES AND CANDIDATES

•Election of Committeemen or Committeewomen

Under current law, political parties qualifying for separate ballot status elect their party committeemen or committeewomen at the September primary. The function of committeemen and committeewomen is to represent their neighborhoods in the structure of the political parties and to serve as liaisons between their party and the residents of their election districts.

This bill requires that political party committeemen or committeewomen be selected by a vote of the county political party members in good standing at a meeting held after the September primary but before April 1 of the following year.

•Affidavits Relating to Nomination Papers and Petitions

Under current law, the circulator of nomination papers or other election-related petitions must make, under oath, an affidavit attesting to certain information including the fact that he or she personally circulated the nomination papers or petition, personally obtained the signatures thereon and knows the respective residences of the signers thereof. A circulator falsifying any such information may be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both, under the election laws. The person may also be subject to a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment not to exceed five years, or both, for false swearing.

This bill deletes the requirement that circulators of nomination papers or election-related petitions make an affidavit under oath. Instead, the bill requires circulators to certify all of the information currently required in the affidavit, subject to the same penalties under the election laws. However, under the bill, falsifying the information in the circulator's certification would not subject a person to the penalties for false swearing.