GOP candidates for governor want Wisconsin election oversight duties under partisan offices of AG, Secretary of State
Molly Beck
MADISON - Republican candidates for governor who want to dissolve the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission are proposing new plans to shift election oversight to partisan elected offices.
Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch released a plan on Monday to create a new office within the state Department of Justice that would give the Attorney General the jurisdiction to prosecute voting violations, shift election audits to DOJ, and make it easier for the public to obtain copies of the state voter list, among other changes.
At the same time, U.S. Marine veteran Kevin Nicholson said he wants to shift the duties of the Wisconsin Elections Commission to the Secretary of State's office.
Both offices are currently held by Democrats, including one who has been re-elected every four years for nearly four decades.
The ideas were put forward two days after state Rep. Timothy Ramthun entered the Republican primary for governor with a campaign endorsed by top allies of former President Donald Trump that is entirely focused on overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.
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Under Kleefisch's plan, a new office called the Office of Election Integrity & Public Trust would be tasked with performing an audit before and after each election. Not all of WEC's duties would be shifted to the new office under Kleefisch's plan.
A campaign spokesman said the office's budget and staffing levels would be "as much as is needed to regain the public trust" but did not say whether the cost would be more or less than what is currently spent on election oversight.
Under her plan, the Attorney General would have jurisdiction in state law over such violations in addition to county district attorneys.
Among the proposed office's duties would be to "certify voter rolls are clean and accurate" and purge "non-voters" from the rolls. Inactive voters are currently purged after four years of not voting. That timeframe would not be shortened, according to the campaign.
Members of the public also could obtain the state's voter database for free, instead of paying the current fee of $12,500, under Kleefisch's plan.
Kleefisch is proposing to make attorneys and DOJ staff available to answer election-related inquiries.
Democratic incumbent Gov. Tony Evers' campaign said Kleefisch's plan would further politicize election outcomes.
“You can’t dissolve a state agency every time you disagree with the outcome of a fair election," said Sam Roecker, campaign spokesman for Evers. "Sadly, Rebecca Kleefisch wants to inject more chaos and division into Wisconsin elections, even if it means destroying the bipartisan system Republicans created and the Walker-Kleefisch administration signed into law."
"This plan would make it easier for politicians to abuse their power and interfere with elections to predetermine the outcome. It’s simple: elections should be decided by the voters, not divisive politicians like Rebecca Kleefisch.”
Nicholson, a Delafield management consultant, dismissed Kleefisch's proposal as a way to grow state government.
"Creating another bureaucracy — housed in a DOJ potentially run by a Democrat Attorney General — is an attempt to grab headlines without solving the problem," Nicholson said in a statement. "This is exactly how we ended up with WEC — an organization created by the Madison machine. The WEC has failed to secure elections. For good reason, I don’t think another new agency is the answer to this mess."
Nicholson said state election law is already clear.
"If elected, I would abolish the WEC and make sure that if someone commits voter fraud, they go to jail. Period."
He also said all powers vested to the commission should be transferred to the Secretary of State "who is directly accountable to Wisconsin voters."
A spokeswoman for Nicholson did not immediately answer what size budget lawmakers should give the secretary of state's office to accommodate election oversight. Elected secretaries of state run elections in about two dozen states.
Lawmakers have reduced the office to two positions and a budget of less than $250,000 per year. Secretary of State Doug La Follette currently has an office in the basement of the state Capitol.
In comparison, the Wisconsin Elections Commission has about 32 full-time staff members and an annual budget of $6 million.
La Follette, who is running for re-election in 2022 at age 81, told the Associated Press in January he was motivated to run again to prevent the Republican-controlled Legislature from transferring powers to run elections to his office.
Republican Rep. Amy Loudenbeck is running to unseat La Follette on a platform of making the office "serve as a check on WEC."
Ramthun did not immediately return a phone call seeking a reaction to the proposals.
Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.