Senate finishes last 2024 session without taking up bill aimed at ending 'ballot dumps'

 

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Senate Republicans wrapped up their final scheduled session until next year without voting on a bill that would let Wisconsin clerks begin processing absentee ballots early.

Under the bill, which passed in the Assembly with bipartisan support, clerks would be allowed to open absentee ballot envelopes on the Monday before Election Day.

Clerks would not be allowed to start counting the ballots, but they'd be able to get them ready to go into tabulators throughout the following day. Supporters maintain it'd be especially beneficial to Milwaukee, which as the state's biggest city, has the most absentee ballots to process.

Since the 2020 presidential election, former President Donald Trump has continued to falsely state the late-night reporting of absentee ballot results in Milwaukee was a sign of fraud.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 39 states currently allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day.

"[If the bill passed,] we can put to rest complaints from conspiracy theorists," State Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said. "But just like in Washington, D.C., former President Donald Trump has told Republicans not to fix anything, so that he can continue to spread his lies and complain when he loses."

Senate President Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) posted on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, he opposed the bill because of security concerns.

Kapenga said while he was not opposed to allowing early processing, the bill did not clearly define how voters' identities would be protected.

"It makes sense to sort absentee ballots and verify envelope data on Monday before Election Day," Kapenga wrote. "But there aren’t enough controls in place to protect the privacy of votes if opened early."

It makes sense to sort absentee ballots and verify envelope data on Monday before Election Day, but there aren’t enough controls in place to protect the privacy of votes if opened early. As the rest of the world has figured out, the best way to eliminate irregularities and…

— Sen. Chris Kapenga (@SenatorKapenga) March 12, 2024

Kapenga's office did not return a request for an interview Tuesday afternoon.

Claire Woodall, director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said Wisconsin already has experience dealing with such scenarios.

She pointed to the April 2020 election during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. After a legal back-and-forth, clerks were allowed to count absentee ballots for an additional six days, as long as the ballots were postmarked by Election Day.

"There was never any concern," Woodall said. "We had accurate chain of custody procedures, and there was not any issue with any type of results being accessed or leaked early."

Woodall said she was confident Milwaukee will have an earlier absentee ballot count in 2024, even without the bill.

She said the city had to process 170,000 absentee ballots of 12 tabulators in 2020; some of those tabulators were leased by the city.

Woodall said Milwaukee currently has nine tabulators, but the city plans to buy two more ahead of November using money from a grant provided by a nonprofit called Cities Forward.

With 11 tabulators, Woodall said Milwaukee will be able to more easily handle an estimated 100,000 absentee ballots this fall.

The grant will also fund new voting machines compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and new smartphones aimed at improving communication between elections staff.

Wisconsin voters will decide whether such grants are legal in the future.

Legislative Republicans have passed a proposed constitutional amendment banning the use of private money in election administration in consecutive sessions, which now puts the question to voters in a binding referendum.