Rules committee deadlocks on vote to kill election observer rules
Voting booths set up at Madison, Wisconsin's Hawthorne Library on Election Day 2022. (Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) deadlocked Thursday on whether to object to a proposed administrative rule that would guide the conduct of election observers at polling places.
The 5-5 vote moves the rule one step closer to going into effect because if the committee doesn't take any action, it will be returned to the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to be implemented.
Even though the rule was written by WEC with input from an advisory committee that included members of right-wing election conspiracy groups, election skeptics opposed the rule's passage at a number of public hearings.
At a hearing on Monday, 2020 election deniers — including former state Rep. Janel Brandtjen — testified in opposition to the rule because they believed it didn't do enough to protect the rights of election observers. Lawmakers on the committee, including its co-chair, Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee), complained that the rule was written without enough input from legislators.
Despite that opposition, Rep. Kevin Petersen (R-Waupaca) joined with the committee's four Democrats, Sens. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) and Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Reps. Margaret Arney (D-Wauwatosa) and Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) to vote against the motion objecting to the rule's passage.
In Monday's hearing, election commissioner Don Millis said the rule gives the state the best chance to clarify how election observers should conduct themselves while protecting the rights of voters.
'I don't agree with everything in the rule, but I don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good,' he said. 'Without this rule, municipal clerks have wide ranging authorities to manage polling places as they see fit. There's no reasonable argument that observers are better off without this rule.'
While Thursday's vote is a step toward implementation, the rule is still in the committee until May 11, according to the office of the committee's other co-chair, Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater). The committee could vote on the issue again before then.
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