Several elections related bills are headed to Governor Tony Evers, after passing the state Assembly on party line votes.
Representative Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) is Minority Caucus Chair. “These bills are designed to add more hurdles for voters to get over, and more pitfalls that voters need to avoid,” Spreitzer said. “They are actively hostile to voting, to voters and to the right to vote itself.”
Speaker Robin Vos said the bills are needed. “The goal is to make sure . . that every single person has the chance to vote, but that we guarantee that the confidence in the election, which has been severely undermined by the actions of a few over the last election cycle, hopefully are a thing of the past,” Vos said.
The bills include SB 204, which would require indefinitely confined voters to apply for absentee ballots annually and end an exemption for providing proof of ID. It would also require all absentee voters to include their ID each time they apply for a ballot. Currently, voters are only required to provide ID verification the first time they vote absentee.