The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Thursday declined to send the state’s unredacted voter rolls to the federal government, joining more than a dozen states pushing back against disclosing sensitive voter information.
The commission’s move comes as the U.S. Department of Justice has asked all 50 states for their voter files — massive lists containing significant personal information on every voter in the country — claiming they are central to its mission of enforcing election law.
“The U.S. DOJ is simply asking the commission to do something that the commission is explicitly forbidden by Wisconsin law to do,” said Don Millis, a Republican appointee on the Wisconsin Elections Commission. “There’s a clear consensus that personally identifiable information is to be protected.”
While pieces of these lists are public, election officials typically redact voters’ Social Security numbers, driver’s license information and dates of birth before issuing them in response to records requests. The DOJ, in many cases, has asked for information not traditionally made public. That was also the case in Wisconsin: The DOJ requested voters’ partial Social Security numbers, license numbers and dates of birth.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission — which is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans — ultimately voted in closed session to send the DOJ a letter declining the request for unredacted voter information. Republican commissioner Bob Spindell appeared to be the only member in favor of cooperating with the federal government and said Wisconsin will likely face a lawsuit as a result of the commission’s choice.
The letter, signed by every commissioner except Spindell, says state law “explicitly prohibits” sending the unredacted voter list.
Officials in both Democratic and Republican states have pushed back on disclosing their voter rolls in response to these requests. On a podcast with conservative talk radio host Joe Pags, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said these states were refusing to cooperate because they were embarrassed that their voter rolls were not sufficiently cleared of inactive or unlawful registrants.
Rather, many states, like Colorado, have said the federal government isn’t entitled to unredacted voter information that could put voters at risk. The DOJ, they say, has not provided sufficient explanation for how the data will be used.
In early December, after receiving a memorandum of understanding similar to the one sent to Wisconsin, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold told the DOJ to “take a hike,” adding that she “will not help Donald Trump undermine our elections.” The DOJ sued Griswold just over a week later.
All 50 states were asked to turn over their voting rolls, Dhillon said on the podcast: Four states have voluntarily cooperated, 12 are in negotiations, and 14 have been sued by the DOJ over their refusal.
Wisconsin election officials have repeatedly said that federal officials can obtain the publicly available, and therefore redacted, voter roll the same way anybody else can: by purchasing it online for $12,500.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Wisconsin clerks say two decisions on legislation this week — a new law expanding towns’ ability to hire clerks and a veto that blocks broader standing to sue election officials — will help ease mounting pressure on local election offices, which have faced record turnover and increasing legal threats.
The new law allows small towns to more easily hire clerks who live outside of municipal limits, a change clerks say is urgently needed as finding small-town clerks has become harder in recent years amid increased scrutiny, new laws and ever-evolving rules. As the new law moved through the Legislature, some small towns ran elections with no clerks at all.
“There are lots of townships that will benefit from this,” said Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood, a Republican. “It’s going to help tremendously.”
In the past, towns with fewer than 2,500 residents had to hold a referendum to authorize appointing clerks instead of electing them. That took time, and the election requirement restricted who could serve, since elected clerks — unlike appointed clerks — must live within municipal boundaries.
The new law allows towns to switch to appointing clerks after a vote at a town meeting.
It also eliminates another hurdle: In the past, even if a town approved the switch, it couldn’t take effect until the end of a term. The law lets towns make the change immediately if the clerk position is vacant or becomes vacant.
That could be critical: Between 2020 and 2024, more than 700 of Wisconsin’s municipal clerks left their posts, the highest churn in the nation, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Trueblood said this proposal won’t be a complete fix to the clerk shortage but will go a long way toward easing it by allowing municipalities to recruit more broadly.
Likely beneficiaries of the new law include the town of Wausau, whose longtime clerk retired late last year. Town supervisors then appointed a town resident, who quit after two weeks, forcing supervisors to collectively assume the clerk’s duties for the April election.
In that election, the town put forth a referendum to permanently switch to appointing clerks, but voters rejected it by a narrow margin — something that Town Supervisor Sharon Hunter said was a matter of people not understanding why the measure was critical. The town also elected a clerk, but that same clerk quit in September and the town is once again without a clerk.
“There’s just a lot of different responsibilities,” Hunter said. “And I don’t think people realize that it’s not like in the olden days.”
Hunter added that she’s “very excited” about the new law.
“Elections are coming,” she said, “so we really need to find someone very quickly.”
Veto maintains high bar to appealing complaints
Clerks also welcomed Evers’ Friday veto of a bill that would have made it easier to sue election officials by expanding who has standing to appeal Wisconsin Elections Commission decisions in court.
The Democratic governor’s veto preserves a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision issued earlier this year that limits who can appeal WEC decisions to those who “suffer an injury to a legally recognized interest.” Republicans wrote the bill to expand standing to any eligible voters who file a complaint, regardless of whether they suffered harm — a change clerks warned would overwhelm election offices and the courts.
In his veto message, Evers echoed clerks’ concerns, saying the proposal would “open the floodgates to frivolous lawsuits that not only burden our courts, but our election systems as well.”
But Republicans said that despite clerks’ objections, the veto will make it difficult or even impossible to hold election officials accountable for breaking the law.
State Sen. Van Wanggaard, the Republican who wrote the bill, said it could stop a variety of complaints from going to court.
“The little guy gets screwed again,” he said in a statement. “This veto makes WEC an unanswerable body whose judgment can never be questioned by anyone.”
In the past, many lawsuits against clerks and other election officials began as administrative complaints filed with WEC before being appealed to court. Filing a complaint with the agency is the legally required first step for most election-related challenges, unless they are brought by district attorneys or the attorney general.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that prompted the bill halted a lawsuit that challenged the legality of a mobile voting van in Racine. The court did not settle the underlying issue, instead dismissing the case because the liberals who hold a majority on the court determined the plaintiff had no standing.
Given the veto, that situation could recur, with legal questions about elections being left open because cases seeking to resolve them are ultimately dismissed over standing.
At the federal level, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year heard oral arguments in an Illinois case over the legal standard political candidates must meet to challenge state election laws. A decision is pending.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
A November fundraising email paid for and sent by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s Democratic campaign for governor included a message signed by “Team Taylor,” the campaign of Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, who is running in the nonpartisan April race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The note describes the power the next governor will have and how the court can be a “check” on the person in that office. It ends with an appeal: “Will you split a contribution of $10 between our campaign and David Crowley to help elect Judge Chris Taylor and protect a fair, independent Wisconsin Supreme Court?”
The fundraising message is one of potentially thousands of emails Wisconsinites may receive from campaigns seeking donations ahead of pivotal elections next year. But it also raises questions about why asks from nonpartisan campaigns can appear in a partisan candidate’s fundraising materials and whether a message, like the one from Crowley’s campaign featuring Taylor’s team, can seem like an endorsement.
Taylor has not, in fact, endorsed Crowley, who is running in a crowded Democratic primary field for governor next August. Crowley has endorsed Taylor, a liberal who is running against conservative Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar in the April election.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks during the Wisconsin Democratic Convention at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., on June 14, 2025. (Patricio Crooker for Wisconsin Watch)
Though the joint fundraising belies Wisconsin’s nonpartisan-in-name — though increasingly partisan-in-practice — Supreme Court elections, the communication doesn’t raise ethical or legal issues, experts told Wisconsin Watch. Additionally, a fundraising email like this is not unusual in the context of Wisconsin’s recent Supreme Court elections, said Howard Schweber, a professor emeritus of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In fact, Wisconsin’s main political parties were the top donors to the campaigns of the liberal and conservative candidates in the record-breaking 2025 Supreme Court race, with Democrats giving $11.75 million to now-Justice Susan Crawford’s campaign and Republicans sending $9.76 million to the campaign of former Attorney General Brad Schimel.
“This is just yet another data point, number 115, demonstrating that these are, in fact, partisan campaigns run … at least in some cases, by candidates who present themselves as representatives of a party,” Schweber said.
Since its founding, Wisconsin has tried to keep judicial races nonpartisan. Justices are supposed to interpret the law and constitution like a referee, not side with one team or the other. But over the past 20 years, as hot-button political issues have come before the court and spending from political interest groups has reached astronomical heights, that tradition has eroded.
Taylor and Lazar are the likely candidates in the court race in April and are on completely opposite ends of the political spectrum. Taylor is a former Dane County judge who served as a Democrat in the state Assembly and was a policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Lazar is a former Waukesha County judge who was an assistant attorney general under a Republican administration.
Wisconsin prohibits judges and judicial candidates from endorsing partisan political candidates or directly soliciting campaign donations. During the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed an ethics complaint against Schimel after reports that he joked about buying knee pads to ask for campaign donations.
The message sent by the Crowley campaign is a different scenario, as the text is signed by “Team Taylor,” not Taylor herself. Taylor has not endorsed any political candidates or directly solicited donations in her campaign for the Supreme Court, Sam Roecker, a spokesperson for Taylor’s campaign, told Wisconsin Watch.
Messages Taylor’s campaign sends to its list of email subscribers can be shared by other political campaigns with their own fundraising lists, such as in the case of the Crowley email.
“Other campaigns, regardless of party, who believe in electing a justice who will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, are welcome to amplify our messages to their supporters,” said Roecker, the Taylor spokesperson.
It’s not clear whether other Democrats running for governor may have shared fundraising messages from the Taylor campaign. Only Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, responded to questions from Wisconsin Watch with a simple “nope.”
Lazar’s campaign has not sent fundraising messages with candidates running for partisan offices, a spokesperson said.
Ahead of the 2025 court race, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in a campaign email promoted Schimel’s candidacy. But the message was signed by Tiffany rather than anyone connected to Schimel’s campaign.
A spokesperson for Crowley’s campaign said Democrats believe it’s “critical” to elect Taylor to the high court — which was the reasoning behind the campaign message.
“The Crowley campaign sent a fundraising email to support her campaign and highlight the importance of this race, recognizing the natural overlap between the two candidates,” the spokesperson said.
Political activities during a Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign can resurface once a candidate is elected. Earlier this year, Crawford was criticized for attending a briefing with Democratic donors with a discussion on putting two of Wisconsin’s U.S. House seats “in play.”
In November the justice denied a request from Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen that she recuse herself from cases challenging the state’s congressional maps based on attending that meeting.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a Milwaukee Democrat, announced Tuesday he’s running for governor in 2026.
Barnes served as lieutenant governor under Gov. Tony Evers from 2019 to 2023, the first African American to hold the position. He previously served in the state Assembly from 2013 to 2017.
Barnes’ entry into the race has long been anticipated, especially after a poll in early October showed him with the most support (16%) among a wide open field of Democratic contenders.
Wisconsin Watch has checked several claims related to Barnes during his unsuccessful 2022 campaign against Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. Here’s what we found:
Defunding police: Barnes did not say that he supported defunding police, though in 2020 he backed reduced spending for Milwaukee police.
Gun rights: Barnes did say in a 2013 social media post he “could not care less about a 2nd Amendment ‘right.’ Bear arms all you wish, but you should pay for your mishandling.” In 2022, he said “we can respect the Second Amendment” while increasing “common-sense” gun control measures.
Immigration: Barnes did not say that he wanted to open U.S. borders. He backed a policy that “secures the border and also includes a path for citizenship.”
Abortion: Barnes did oppose the government legislating a limit on abortion, though a spokesperson at the time told Wisconsin Watch he didn’t support “abortion up until birth,” noting the standard before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 allowed limits on abortion after viability. He emphasized the abortion decision should be between a woman and her doctor.
Taxes: Barnes did not support raising taxes on the middle class, but rather backed middle-class tax cuts.
Criminal justice: As a state Assembly member in 2015, Barnes did vote against a law that expanded penalties for battery and threats against public officials.
Climate: Barnes did support the Green New Deal in 2021. During the 2022 campaign, he supported elements of the federal proposal to fight climate change while not referring to it by name.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Edith Butler is dealing with a real-world math problem: Her housing costs keep rising while a tax credit intended to help keeps shrinking.
The widow and retired nurse, 68, lives by herself in a two-bedroom Eau Claire home. She paid $9,000 in rent over the course of last year, eating up more than 60% of her Social Security paycheck — her primary source of income. Her utility costs are also expected to hike next year.
She received $708 last year from claiming a homestead tax credit, which is meant to help lower-income homeowners and renters recoup some property tax costs. That was down from the $900 credit she received five years ago after paying just $6,600 in rent.
In the past, the homestead credit has paid to fill her propane tank for about three months during winter and offset some other costs. But it’s dwindling each year because the state rarely updates eligibility guidelines and credit calculations for inflation. Butler’s credit shrinks whenever the federal government increases her Social Security payment to account for the rising costs of living.
She’s not alone. Statewide homestead credit claims dropped from an average of $523 per recipient in 2013 to $486 in 2025, with thousands fewer claimants as fewer people remained eligible.
“These things have never adjusted. But we’ve paid into these programs all our lives. I paid taxes for 50 years, (and) my Social Security is my benefit that I paid in,” Butler said. “You work hard and you pay into programs, and then when you need them in your older years like this, they’re not there for you.”
The Legislature has not substantially updated the homestead credit for 25 years, causing its value to erode. Recent Democratic proposals to update program guidelines have failed to gain Republican support.
A tax credit’s history
An AP story on the homestead tax credit as published in The Sheboygan Press, Jan. 20, 1966.
By the 1960s, many in Wisconsin acknowledged the regressive nature of property taxes — that lower-income residents pay higher shares of their income than richer households do, John Stark, then-Assistant Chief Counsel in the Legislative Reference Bureau, wrote in a 1991 history of property tax relief in Wisconsin. But the state Constitution’s “uniformity clause” restricted what type of tax relief lawmakers can enact.
Against that backdrop, a State Commission on Aging in 1962 held hearings around the state in which older adults expressed concerns about health care and property taxes. The Legislature responded in 1963 with the homestead credit. Residents 65 and older could claim up to $225 (the equivalent of $2,380 today), with the precise calculation based on income, property taxes paid through ownership or rent.
The Legislature expanded eligibility over the years, notably in 1973, when it lowered the age minimum to 18. That dramatically boosted total claimants and payouts. By 1988, more than 250,000 people received a collective $100 million (roughly $270 million today) in credits.
The trend has since reversed.
Fewer than 67,000 residents claimed a collective $32.6 million in credits last year — a precipitous plunge, Department of Revenue data show.
The program’s income cap today — $24,680 — has barely budged since 2000. The nearly identical cap of $24,500 in 2000 is the equivalent of $45,812 today when adjusted for inflation.
Meanwhile, the program’s “phaseout income” of $8,060, under which homeowners or renters can recoup the maximum 80% of property taxes paid, has increased by only $60 since the 1989 tax year.
Today’s maximum credit a household can claim ($1,168) is just $8 higher than the 1990 level.
Diane Hanson, Butler’s tax agent, said her clients are receiving smaller credits each year or becoming ineligible as inflation pushes wages or Social Security payments above the static income limit.
Still, Hanson suspects many who remain eligible don’t realize it.
The homestead credit helped Hanson through her most challenging times. After learning about it at her local library, she claimed the credit for several years while raising her two children during a divorce, one of them with disabilities.
After becoming a tax agent in 2019, she began to educate clients facing similar circumstances. They include Renata Braatz, who raises her 12-year-old son and spends about 30% of her monthly income on rent through the Section 8 voucher program. She claimed about $600 through the homestead program last year. She spent it on groceries and other expenses for her son.
“I never knew about it. I lived here for six years, and I just started doing it two years ago,” Braatz said.
But asking questions paid off.
“Renata was proactive, reaching out, phoning us, and asking if there could be any credits for her. I think that is more than some folks know to do,” Hanson said. “Before I was a tax professional, I myself didn’t know how much the federal earned income credit can help out parents.”
Democrats call for credit’s expansion
Senate and Assembly Democrats earlier this year introduced identical bills to expand the homestead credit — allowing households earning up to $35,000 to claim it and indexing the maximum annual income, phaseout income and maximum credit to inflation. The proposal would have reduced state revenue by an estimated $36.7 million, $43 million and $48.8 million over the next three fiscal years.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers also proposed a homestead credit expansion in his last two-year budget.
Neither proposal advanced in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, authored the Senate version of the bill with colleagues. His district borders Illinois, which offers a range of more generous homestead tax incentives. Several constituents who previously lived in Illinois asked him why Wisconsin doesn’t offer what Illinois does, inspiring the legislation.
The Wisconsin Constitution’s uniformity clause prohibits lawmakers from enacting Illinois-like tax exemptions for older adults or other low-income residents, Spreitzer said, but the credit offers a legal work-around.
“There’s not really another credit that takes the place of this,” he said. “That’s why the homestead credit is so important.”
Spreitzer said he plans to reintroduce an expansion bill, and he encourages residents to share their perspectives with their representatives.
“If we want to do something about affordability, this is a very direct thing we can do,” Spreitzer said. “We’re not creating a new credit here. This already exists. We’re just talking about increasing who qualifies and how much money they would get back, and that’s money that they would directly be able to get back on their taxes and then spend to put food on the plate for their families.”
Hanson sees a path for bipartisan support for an update.
“The alternative is to see it dwindle,” Hanson said. “It hurts the segment of people that actually need it, the people who just don’t get much help anywhere. They’re still working hard to be independent.”
Learn more about the homestead credit
Visit the Department of Revenue’s website to learn more about eligibility for the credit.
You can claim it by filing online or through mail within 4 years and 3 ½ months after the fiscal taxable year to which the claim relates. That means you can still file for a 2021 credit before April 15, 2026.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
In the Wisconsin Senate’s last floor session of 2025, lawmakers debated and voted on bills that appear destined for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ veto pen.
One of the bills, which passed the Republican-led Assembly in September and is on its way to Evers’ desk, would prohibit public funds from being used to provide health care to undocumented immigrants. Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, the bill’s Senate author, argued it would protect Wisconsin taxpayers, citing Democratic states like Illinois where enrollment and costs of a health care program for noncitizens far exceeded initial estimates.
But several Senate Democrats lambasted the proposal as a “heartless” attempt by GOP lawmakers to gain political points with their base with 2026 elections around the corner. Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, hinted at its likely future in the governor’s office.
“It’s going to be vetoed,” Carpenter said.
Plenty of bills in the nearly eight years of Wisconsin’s split government have passed through the Republican-controlled Assembly and Senate before receiving a veto from the governor. Evers vetoed a record 126 bills during the 2021-22 legislative session ahead of his reelection campaign and 72 bills during the 2023-24 session. The governor has vetoed 15 bills so far in 2025, not including partial vetoes in the state budget, according to a Wisconsin Watch review of veto messages. The number is certain to rise, though whether it will approach the record is far from clear.
A few Senate Democrats seeking higher office in 2026 said some recent legislation that is unlikely to make it past Evers, from a repeal of the creative veto that raises school revenue limits for the next 400 years to a bill exempting certain procedures from the definition of abortion, looks like political messaging opportunities to ding Democrats. They anticipate more of those proposals to come up next year.
“For the last eight years we’ve had divided government, but we’ve had a heavily gerrymandered Legislature,” said Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, who is among at least seven candidates running for governor in 2026 and voted against those bills on the floor. “For Republicans in the Legislature, there has been no cost and everything to gain from pursuing the most radical and extreme proposals in their party.”
Evers is not seeking a third term as governor in 2026 and is entering the final year of his current term, which no longer makes him vulnerable to political fallout from vetoing bills. But legislative Democrats, particularly in the Senate where the party hopes to win the majority in 2026, can be forced into difficult decisions in their chambers where Republicans control which bills get votes on the Senate and Assembly floors.
“It was all this political gamesmanship of trying to get points towards their own base and/or put me or others, not just me, into a position to have to make that tough vote,” said Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, of the bill banning public dollars spent on health care for undocumented immigrants. Smith, who is seeking reelection in his western Wisconsin district next year, holds the main Senate seat Republicans are targeting in 2026. He voted against the bill.
Smith said the immigration bill saw “a lot of discussion” in the Senate Democratic Caucus ahead of the floor session on Nov. 18, particularly on where Smith would vote given the attention on his seat. The bill passed the chamber on a vote of 21-12 with Democratic support from Sen. Sarah Keyeski, D-Lodi; Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska; and Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, who are not up for reelection next year but represent more conservative parts of the state.
“Many people thought the easy vote would be to just vote with the Republicans because it’s not going to be signed,” Smith said. “But I’ve still got to go back and explain it to my voters.”
A spokesperson for Majority Leader Sen. Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, did not respond to questions from Wisconsin Watch about how Senate Republicans consider what bills advance to the Senate floor. Neither did a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester.
In a social media post after the Senate session, Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, listed “all the things WI Senate Democrats voted against,” which included “prohibiting illegal aliens from getting taxpayer-funded healthcare.”
Scott Kelly, Wanggaard’s chief of staff, said a potential veto or putting Democrats on the record on certain issues largely doesn’t influence the legislation their office pursues.
“Our job is to pass bills that we think are good ideas that should be law,” Kelly said. “Whether other people support or veto them is not my issue. The fact that Democrats think this is a political ‘gotcha,’ well, that just shows they know it’s an idea that the public supports.”
Not all of the bills on the Senate floor on Nov. 18 seemed aimed at election messaging. The chamber unanimously approved a bill to extend tax credits for businesses that hire a third party to build workforce housing or establish a child care program. In October, senators voted 32-1 to pass a bipartisan bill requiring insurance companies to cover cancer screenings for women with dense breast tissue who are at an increased risk of breast cancer. The Republican-authored bill has yet to move in the Assembly despite bipartisan support from lawmakers there as well.
Assembly Democrats last week criticized Vos and Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth, for blocking a vote on Senate Bill 23, a bipartisan bill to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage to new Wisconsin moms. Assembly Minority Leader Rep. Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, in a press conference at the Capitol called the move “pathetic.”
But health care is a top issue for Democratic voters and less so for Republicans, according to the Marquette University Law School Poll conducted in October. Illegal immigration and border security are the top issue for Republican voters in Wisconsin. About 75% of GOP voters said they were “very concerned” about the issue heading into 2026, though only 16% of Democrats and 31% of immigrants said the same.
Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center and political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said political messaging votes can have impacts on elections, especially in what will be some of the close Senate races in 2026.
“It’s kind of a messaging opportunity, not really a policymaking opportunity. It’s also maybe a way for Republicans to let off some steam,” Burden said. “They have divisions within their own caucuses. They have disagreements between the Republicans in the Assembly, Republicans in the Senate. They can never seem to get on the same page with a lot of these things, and there are often a few members who are holding up bills. So, when they can find agreement and push something through in both chambers and get near unanimous support from their caucuses, that’s a victory in itself and maybe helps build some morale or solidarity within the party.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A Republican proposal to require every Wisconsin municipality to offer early-voting hours has divided groups representing voters and election officials, with voters calling the proposal a net gain for voting access and some clerks calling the requirements onerous, especially for small municipalities.
The bill originally required every municipality to offer at least 20 hours of in-person early voting at the clerk’s office or an alternate site. It was amended Tuesday, based on clerk feedback, to allow for fewer required hours in some smaller municipalities.
Municipalities that can’t hold their own early-voting hours would be able to offer it in a neighboring municipality or the county clerk’s office under the bill. A separate measure would provide $1.5 million to municipalities extending their early-voting hours — lowered from an originally proposed $10 million — but that would be available only for the 2025-26 fiscal year, while the early-voting requirements appear to be indefinite. The proposal would apply to the April and November elections.
Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, a Republican, previously told Votebeat she wrote the bill after noticing the stark difference in early-voting availability between rural and urban municipalities. Cities such as Milwaukee and Madison offer multiple days for early voting, while some rural municipalities offer just a couple of hours, or do it by appointment only.
Cabral-Guevara didn’t directly answer a follow-up question from Votebeat on Tuesday about whether the Senate would fund the measure, but said she’s hoping it passes. Rep. Scott Krug, a Republican who wrote the bill with her, told Votebeat he hopes the Senate will pass the measure since he lowered the amount of proposed funding.
“It’s only going to create more opportunities for voting,” said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin. “That for us is always the key. It should be funded for more than one year.”
The amended bill would set the minimum early-voting period at 10 hours in municipalities with fewer than 600 voters,15 hours in municipalities with between 600 and 799 voters and 20 hours in towns with 800 or more voters.
But some clerks said any hourly requirement would be too burdensome — and could have the unintended consequence of decreasing voter access. Because Wisconsin’s elections are run at the municipal level, a small number of clerks serving only a few dozen voters would still be required to adhere to the minimum hours.
Omro Town Clerk Dana Woods called this “too drastic of a measure” and said the requirements may lead to “honorable public servants” choosing to leave their jobs.
Most Wisconsin clerks work part time, with some scheduled only a few hours per week. Woods, for example, is scheduled to be in her office just seven hours per week and serves 1,800 registered voters.
Lisa Tollefson, the Rock County clerk, acknowledged that the proposal could increase voting across the state but said it still doesn’t make sense in the smallest municipalities, where voters typically choose to vote on Election Day.
Joe Ruth, government affairs director at the Wisconsin Towns Association, said at a public hearing for the proposal that clerks would likely stop offering early voting by appointment if they have to fulfill the proposed hourly requirement. And if they do so, he added, the voters who can’t come during the set hours would lose their opportunity to vote early in person.
Ruth didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the amendment alleviated his concerns.
In an Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections executive session, the five Republicans on the committee voted in favor and the two Democrats voted against it. It is scheduled for an Assembly floor vote on Wednesday.
Republican Rep. Dave Maxey, who chairs the Assembly elections committee, called the bill a great idea and questioned why people would vote against a funded mandate that would expand voting. He said there would be a mechanism to fund early voting in future years through the budget.
Rep. Lee Snodgrass, a Democrat, told Votebeat that she voted against the bill because it allows a county board to decide whether a municipality can hold early-voting hours at the county clerk’s office. She said county boards shouldn’t have oversight over elections. The latest tweak to the bill now requires consent from both the county board and clerk.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Two of the biggest political issues of the year are immigration and health care.
In the latest Marquette Law School Poll, 75% of Republicans said they were very concerned about illegal immigration and border security while 83% of Democrats said they were very concerned about health insurance. Those were the top issues among those groups. (Among independents, 79% said they were very concerned about inflation and the cost of living, making it their top issue.)
Here’s a look at some recent fact checks of claims related to health care and immigration.
Health care
No, Obamacare premiums aren’t doubling for 20 million Americans in 2026, but 2 to 3 million Americans would lose all enhanced subsidies and about half of them could see their premium payments double or triple.
Yes, Obamacare premiums increased three times the rate of inflation since the program started in 2014. They’re making headlines now for going up even more.
No, 6 million people have not received Obamacare health insurance without knowing it. There wasn’t evidence to back a claim by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., about the level of fraud in the program.
No, Wisconsin does not have a law on minors getting birth control without parental consent. But residents under age 18 can get birth control on their own.
Immigration
Yes, unauthorized immigrants have constitutional rights that apply to all people in the U.S. That includes a right to due process, to defend oneself in a hearing, such as in court, though not other rights, such as voting.
No, standard driver’s licenses do not prove U.S. citizenship. There’s a court battle in Wisconsin over whether voters must prove citizenship to cast a ballot.
Yes, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is offering police departments $100,000 to cooperate in finding unauthorized immigrants. It’s for vehicle purchases.
No, tens of millions of unauthorized immigrants do not receive federal health benefits.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Wisconsin municipalities and school districts, which rely on taxpayer dollars to fund their services, are running into rising frustration from the residents who pay those costs.
The frustration comes as more local governments are turning to wheel taxes to fund transportation-related services as costs of construction materials rise and local leaders say the Legislature over the years has constrained ways municipalities can raise additional revenues. Nearly half of Wisconsin residents are paying a wheel tax in 2025, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
The number of Wisconsin school districts turning to taxpayers to support referendums has also grown in recent years with the state seeing more than 200 ballot questions in 2024, 148 of which were operating referendums. Ninety-four districts sought referendums in elections this year, the most in an odd-numbered election year since 2007, the Policy Forum noted earlier this year.
But Wisconsin taxpayers’ support for funding revenue needs of local governments and school districts appears to be waning as residents grapple with their own rising costs from energy bills to health care payments.
The Marquette University Law School Poll conducted in October showed 56% of voters found lowering property taxes to be more important than funding public education, a number that has gradually grown in the last two years. Between 2015 and 2022 more voters supported funding public schools over lowering property taxes. Additionally, 57% of Wisconsin voters in October said they would be more likely to vote against a school referendum when, just four months earlier, 52% of voters said they would support one.
The public discontent with government taxes and fees aligns with a longtime Republican strategy to reduce the size and reach of government. Similar frustration with the role of government in the wake of the Great Recession swept Republicans into power in Wisconsin in 2010, and they’ve kept control of the Legislature since then.
Heading into the next cycle, Republican lawmakers are promoting bills that seek to limit when taxpayers can be asked for more funding.
One bill from Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, would require referendums for local governments that want to establish a wheel tax and mandate the municipalities and counties with existing wheel taxes to go to referendum to keep their fees in place. Hutton, who is up for reelection in 2026, holds perhaps the most vulnerable of three Republican Senate seats that Democrats are targeting in elections next year.
A resident brought the idea for the wheel tax bill to Hutton’s office as New Berlin and Elm Grove considered implementing their own vehicle registration fees earlier this year, his chief of staff said in an email to Wisconsin Watch. The New Berlin Common Council officially rejected the option to pursue a wheel tax in July.
“Some may argue that these are not make or break amounts of money, and that certainly may be the case,” Hutton said during an October hearing on the Assembly companion to his bill. “But every cost adds up to many citizens in these communities, especially those families who are living paycheck to paycheck.”
Hutton’s bill is scheduled for a public hearing Wednesday, just a week after the Eau Claire City Council voted to raise the city’s wheel tax from $24 to $50. Eau Claire residents will pay $80 between city and county fees with the new increase, which is currently higher than Milwaukee where city residents pay $60 in wheel taxes split between the city and county.
The vehicle registration fee increase will give the city of Eau Claire an additional $1.2 million, which the city’s finance director told councilors was necessary for a balanced budget without making other cuts.
“If we didn’t have the wheel tax available, we would have to make very significant cuts,” Stephanie Hirsch, Eau Claire’s city manager, told Wisconsin Watch. “We can’t really touch our public safety departments because of state laws that require us to maintain spending and service maintenance of effort laws, so it would be coming from those public works functions or the other nonmandated services that we provide like operating a very popular outdoor pool or maintaining parks.”
But Eau Claire residents opposed to the proposal said it was wrong to approve a wheel tax increase as costs are rising for food, health care, energy and more.
“Another fee increase, especially on something as basic as the ability to drive to work, drive to school or appointments, should be completely off the table right now,” said Elizabeth Willier, who told the council she organized resident petitions against doubling the wheel tax through conservative group Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin.
Growing tax frustration
Citizen anger against government taxes isn’t new. But it seems that taxpayers in Wisconsin have especially become more engaged in government in the years since the coronavirus pandemic, said Paul Rozeski, the director of government and member relations with Wisconsin Property Taxpayers, Inc.
More people want answers about where their money is going, he said.
“We have a lot of small business members, and for them, it’s death by 1,000 paper cuts,” Rozeski said. “Clearly, more and more taxpayers are feeling the same way.”
That public sentiment on referendums increased as 71% of Wisconsin’s school districts learned in October they will receive less general aid for the 2025-26 school year than they did the prior year. State general education aid funding was kept flat in the biennial budget earlier this year.
It could lead districts to make budget cuts, raise property taxes or even turn to voters with referendums to make up those funding gaps.
“I think that’s not going to slow down,” Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, said last month of school district referendums. “I think we’re going to see even more, sadly.”
Under current law Wisconsin school districts will receive a $325 per pupil increase each year in how much revenues they can raise from a combination of state aid and property taxes for the next 400 years due to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ creative veto in 2023.
It’s not clear yet how many school districts might seek referendums in 2026. State law gives districts up to 70 days before an election to adopt a resolution for a referendum, a spokesperson said.
Solutions at the Capitol?
Republican legislative proposals at the Capitol have sought more transparency from school districts that seek additional dollars from taxpayers or more participation from local governments that seek revenues through wheel taxes. Additionally, the Assembly Committee on Education signed off on a series of bills looking to encourage school district consolidation across the state.
Public hearings were held earlier this session on companion bills that would prohibit recurring operating referendums and limit ballot questions from applying to more than four years. Hutton and Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, also brought forward a proposal to bar school districts from pursuing referendums if they are not in compliance with Department of Public Instruction financial reporting requirements.
Nedweski during a public hearing in October cited Milwaukee Public Schools as a reason for the bill. Voters passed a $252 million MPS referendum in 2024, but the district had failed to file 2023 state financial reports on time, which led DPI to withhold state funding.
The likelihood of the Republican proposals receiving Evers’ signature is slim. While Hutton’s Senate bill on wheel tax referendums will receive a public hearing, it’s not clear what appetite other lawmakers will have for the proposal.
The Assembly Committee on Local Government held a public hearing on the Assembly version of Hutton’s bill in late October, but chair Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville, told Hutton and Rep. Dave Maxey, R-New Berlin, that he opposed the proposal.
“If they don’t like a wheel tax, they can replace the board,” Novak said.
Hirsch in Eau Claire understands that the increased wheel tax may be a hardship for residents with the combination of city and county fees. But requiring a referendum would take away options the city needs, she said.
“What we really wish would happen is that the state government would give us more local control and more tools,” Hirsch said. “For example, what we wish for most is a local option sales tax. We really don’t like putting all of the weight on property taxes, and we don’t want to charge people the wheel tax. We wish there were other tools in the tool kit.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A Republican lawmaker’s plan to regulate drop boxes and give Wisconsin’s clerks more time to process absentee ballots ran into obstacles last week, including skepticism from fellow Republicans and a rival GOP bill to ban drop boxes entirely.
The cool reception for Rep. Scott Krug’s ideas, especially to let clerks process ballots on the Monday before an election, underscores the GOP’s persistent internal divide over election policy in Wisconsin, with advocates of reforms long sought by election officials of both parties running into distrust fueled by conspiracy theories and misinformation. Last week, the resistance appeared strong enough to stall or complicate efforts by Republicans who aim to address clerks’ needs and craft workable policy that can gain Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ support.
That split was on full display at a Nov. 4 hearing of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, chaired by Rep. Dave Maxey, R-New Berlin.
Krug, a former committee chair who championed the draft bill to regulate drop boxes, argued that his colleagues should adopt a “reality-based” mindset with their approach to drop boxes. Liberals, he said, control the governor’s office, making it all but certain that GOP Rep. Lindee Brill’s bill to ban drop boxes would get vetoed by Evers.
To that, Brill responded: “I am a believer in God and a follower of Jesus Christ, so do I think there’s a chance that (Evers) would change his mind and sign this into law? Sure. But I’m taking this on because our Republican president believes this is the direction we should be heading.”
In response to questions, she dismissed an Associated Press survey of election officials that found no widespread fraud from drop boxes in the 2020 presidential election that could have affected the results, saying she wasn’t sure she considered the AP a valid source.
“You and I find truth in different spots,” she told a Democratic lawmaker.
During the hearing, Maxey let others speak at length, including Peter Bernegger — a conspiracy theorist fined by the Wisconsin Elections Commission for making frivolous complaints — who echoed unfounded claims of widespread drop box fraud in Wisconsin.
When Krug scrutinized Brill’s proposal, though, Maxey interrupted him, leading a visibly frustrated Krug to ask him to “give me the last sentence, like we’ve let others have.”
Republicans have slim majority, divided caucus
This clash between the two views on election policy “is long-standing and is not going to be resolved anytime soon,” said Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor and founder of the Elections Research Center. “Right now, it seems like neither path is really working.”
Assembly Republican leaders typically only advance bills that have 50 GOP votes, enough to pass without Democratic support. They once held 64 of 99 seats, nearly a supermajority, but now have just 54, meaning they can afford to lose only four GOP votes to advance legislation. That math and the internal distrust make passing even modest reforms difficult. Unless they can rally the more skeptical voices in their caucus, Burden said, Republicans have to be willing to cross the aisle and court Democratic votes.
Maxey, who co-authored Brill’s bill, told Votebeat that drop boxes “are about as effective for election integrity as a mask is at preventing COVID,” an analogy that left his meaning muddled: Drop boxes in Wisconsin have never been proven to be a means for widespread fraud, whereas masks have been shown to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Maxey said his worries weren’t “wild conspiracy theories” but came from past ballot issues in Madison, though none of those involved drop boxes. He told Votebeat that he fears tampering and that voters using drop boxes might be unable to fix ballot errors.
Burden noted that valid ballots deposited in drop boxes are like any other absentee ballot and contain voters’ and witnesses’ information, which helps prevent fraud.
Monday processing proposal in doubt
Krug’s draft proposal to let local clerks begin processing absentee ballots on the Monday before an election was a change long sought by election officials to help speed up the reporting of results, but blocked by a few conservative lawmakers. Krug and other GOP leaders hoped his proposal could win them over because it was part of a broader package that included measures conservatives want, including an explicit ban on clerks fixing, or curing, errors on absentee ballot envelopes, and the stricter regulation of drop boxes.
But at a hearing on Nov. 6, Krug conceded that both the preprocessing and drop box proposals were in jeopardy because of GOP opposition. Those measures were stripped out of the package after pushback from Brill, Maxey and other conservatives, who released their own bill to ban drop boxes entirely.
Maxey told Votebeat that he would likely give a Monday processing proposal a hearing in his committee but would vote against it — adding that he knows other Assembly Republicans are against it, too.
Krug — who previously told Votebeat that he “would use every little ounce of political capital effort created on elections to get Monday processing done” — appeared to downplay the measure’s importance, saying it was only an issue in Milwaukee, where late-night reporting of election results often leads to conspiracy theories about fraudulent ballot dumps.
Clerks elsewhere disagree that the problem is so localized. Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood, a Republican, told Votebeat she hopes Krug “hasn’t entirely given up” on the Monday processing proposal, though “that’s what it sounds like for this session, at least.”
Krug also blamed its failure so far on the governor’s office, which he said received the draft Monday processing proposal months ago but never got back to him.
“Scott Krug has taken enough you-know-what in every community in the state of Wisconsin for being bold on this issue and saying we have to do it,” Krug said. “I need partners.”
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Legislation is being introduced that would, for the first time in a decade, increase benefits for the most severely injured workers in Wisconsin.
The bill, if adopted by the Republican-majority Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, would make a number of changes to the state’s worker’s compensation system.
In particular, it would give raises to people declared permanently and totally disabled such as 77-year-old Jimmy Novy and paraplegic Scott Meyer.
They were featured in a September Wisconsin Watch article. It reported that more than 300 PTD recipients haven’t gotten a raise in their worker’s compensation benefits since 2016.
Novy, who lives in southwest Wisconsin, receives a worker’s comp check of $1,575 per month. Had his benefit kept pace with inflation, which rose 34%, he would have received nearly $21,000 more over the past nine years.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin employers have seen their premiums for worker’s compensation insurance decrease 10 years in a row, saving them $206 million in the past year and over $1 billion since 2017.
Unlike most workers injured on the job, who get temporary worker’s compensation benefits before returning to the job, Wisconsin PTD recipients get worker’s comp checks for life. Twenty-three states provide automatic cost-of-living raises for PTD recipients. But Wisconsin PTD recipients get raises only if worker’s comp legislation proposed every two years, known as an “agreed bill,” becomes law.
The new agreed bill was proposed by employers and labor leaders on the state Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council. The Assembly Workforce Development, Labor and Integrated Employment Committee will hold a hearing on the bill Thursday.
The bill would make these changes for PTD recipients:
Make an estimated 210 more PTD recipients eligible for raises, known as supplementary benefits. Currently, only PTD recipients injured before Jan. 1, 2003, are eligible for raises. The bill would change that date to Jan. 1, 2020.
Raise the maximum weekly benefit for PTD recipients by 57%, from $669 to $1,051, effective Jan. 1, 2026.
Give PTD recipients annual raises, with the amounts set shortly before taking effect. The raise amounts would vary based on when the recipients were injured and their earnings at the time.
One example, provided by the state Department of Workforce Development when the agreed bill was proposed: A PTD recipient injured in 1985 and receiving $535 a week would get a 57% increase to $840. The increase would amount to nearly $16,000 per year.
Spokespersons for the Assembly committee chair, Rep. Paul Melotik, R-Grafton, and for Sen. Dan Feyen, R-Fond du Lac, chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Labor and Economic Development, said the lawmakers had not yet reviewed the bill.
Novy, while in his late 20s, learned he had been exposed to manganese, a key component in batteries, from working in a battery manufacturing plant. He suffered neurological problems that affected his left leg, severely limiting his ability to walk or even maintain his balance.
The bill would raise Novy’s monthly worker’s comp check to about $2,450 from $1,575, an annual increase of about $10,000.
“That’s about time,” Novy said Friday about the bill, eager to hear when he might see a raise in his check.
Wisconsin Watch’s Tom Kertscher explains how permanently and totally disabled workers haven’t seen a raise to their worker’s compensation benefits in nine years. (Video by Trisha Young / Wisconsin Watch)
The money for worker’s compensation checks comes from worker’s compensation insurance companies and from employers who are self-insured for worker’s comp. No tax dollars are involved.
Agreement among employer and labor members on the Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council on the bill was reached after a “fee schedule” for worker’s compensation medical services was included in the 2025-27 state budget adopted in July.
The schedule limits how much health care providers can charge for worker’s comp care.
Meyer, who lost both legs following a workplace accident in 1993 and now lives in Colorado, said he hopes that for PTD recipients on fixed incomes, the proposed raises make “a meaningful impact on their day-to-day lives.”
Appleton lawyer John Edmondson, who represents worker’s comp recipients, said the raises would be “a very nice step in the right direction, albeit coming far too late for those PTD workers who economically suffered and some who simply died waiting.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
More than 300,000 veterans who served their country call Wisconsin home.
During the 2025-26 legislative session, state lawmakers from both parties have proposed bills that would extend benefits to veterans, support memorials to wars they fought in and fund programs that help veterans who struggle with housing, mental health and substance abuse following their service.
Earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed an additional $1.9 million for the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs to fund increasing costs of operating veterans homes. But the Republican budget-writing committee later removed those dollars. GOP lawmakers have argued the WDVA already has funding to cover the costs of the veterans homes in a general appropriation that annually has been underspent, but the department has said the removal of veterans home funding from the budget casts doubt on the legality of using those funds.
Several proposals to fund the veterans homes have been introduced at the Capitol this year, but a solution has not yet made its way to Evers’ desk.
Here are notable bills on veterans issues moving through the legislative process. More legislation could be introduced as the current session continues.
Homeless veterans funding
Senate Bill 411/Assembly Bill 428
Lead authors: Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken/Rep. Benjamin Franklin, R-De Pere
Summary:The bills would provide $1.95 million over the biennium to support the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program operated by the WDVA. It also requires the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents to fund the Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project and reduces the disability rating threshold for veterans or their surviving spouses to claim property tax credits.
Status: Senate Bill 411 passed the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs in October. Assembly Bill 428 was introduced in September but has not received a hearing.
Assembly Bill 596/Assembly Bill 597
Lead author: Franklin
Summary:Assembly Bill 597 would create a state-administered grant program to provide grants to organizations that house homeless veterans through the veterans trust fund. Assembly Bill 596 would provide $1.9 million over the biennium for up to $25 per day for homeless veterans housing organizations. The state funding would complement a federal Veterans Affairs grant program that awards up to $82.73 per day.
Of note: Joey Hoey, the assistant deputy secretary for the WDVA, testified before lawmakers that while the agency supports funding for homeless veterans, the bills would not allow the WDVA to reopen the veterans homes in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls that closed in September.
Status: The bills received public hearings in the Assembly Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs in October.
Senate Bill 385/Assembly Bill 383
Lead authors: Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick/Rep. Jodi Emerson, D-Eau Claire
Summary:The bills would provide $1.9 million over the next biennium to cover the increased costs of operating the Veterans Housing and Recovering facilities in Union Grove, Green Bay and Chippewa Falls. They also would help fund the lease of a new facility in Chippewa Falls.
Of note: The bills are the only proposals that provide the funding WDVA says it needs to fund the veterans homes without additional provisions in the legislation.
Status: The bills were introduced and referred to legislative committees.
Substance abuse and recovery support
Senate Bill 396/Assembly Bill 404
Lead authors: Sen. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton/Rep. Robyn Vining, D-Wauwatosa
Summary:The bills would provide an additional $512,900 in the 2025-26 fiscal year and $602,800 during the 2026-27 fiscal year for the WDVA’s Veterans Outreach and Recovery Program, which provides support to veterans with mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders. It also increases the number of full-time positions for the program by seven employees.
Of note: A fiscal estimate states that the seven full-time positions were previously funded through American Rescue Plan dollars, but funding expired in July.
Status: Both bills were introduced this session and referred to legislative committees.
Housing and property taxes
Senate Bill 175/Assembly Bill 247
Lead authors: Jacque/Rep. Patrick Snyder, R-Weston
Summary: The bills would require local governments to reduce building permit fees by 75% or $500 if the permit is for improvements to the home of a disabled veteran and are necessary to accommodate their disability.
Of note: Paul Fisk, the legislative chair of the American Legion Department of Wisconsin, testified in support of the bill in April but noted Wisconsin’s proposal would be more restrictive than an Illinois proposal that became law in January. The Illinois law entirely waives permit fees for disabled veterans.
Status: The Senate version of the bill passed the Committee on Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs in May. The Assembly bill was introduced and referred to a legislative committee.
Senate Bill 261/Assembly Bill 264
Lead authors: Smith/Rep. Christian Phelps, D-Eau Claire
Summary:The bills would allow a person to claim both the farmland preservation tax credit and the property tax credit for veterans and their surviving spouses in the same tax year.
Of note: A fiscal estimate for the bill indicates allowing Wisconsinites to claim both credits would reduce tax revenues by about $160,000 per year starting in the 2026 fiscal year.
Status: Both bills were introduced and referred to legislative committees.
Education
Senate Bill 587/Assembly Bill 591
Lead authors: Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim, D-Appleton/Rep. Jill Billings, D-La Crosse
Summary:The bills would remove the funding cap for the Wisconsin GI Bill, which provides full tuition and fee remission to eligible veterans and their dependents at UW system schools and technical college districts.
Of note: In an October press release, Dassler-Alfheim said Wisconsin only covered 15% of the total costs for individuals attending a tech school and less for those attending a public university.
Status: Both bills were introduced in October and referred to legislative committees.
Senate Bill 59/Assembly Bill 47
Lead authors: Jacque/Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Hortonville
Summary: The bills eliminate five-year residency restrictions in current law that specify when a veteran or surviving spouse or child can be eligible for tuition and fee remission for UW system schools and technical colleges. Under the bills, people can get tuition and fees waived as long as they indicate they are Wisconsin residents immediately before registering at a school.
Of note: Representatives of the UW system and Wisconsin technical colleges testified that legislative appropriations are not covering the rising costs of remissions at their institutions.
Status: The Senate version of the bill passed the Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges in October. The Assembly bill was introduced and referred to a legislative committee in February.
Memorials
Senate Bill 254/Assembly Bill 250
Lead authors: Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto/Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc
Summary:The bills would create a continuing appropriation at a total of $9 million within the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs designated to support the preservation of the Milwaukee War Memorial Center.
Of note: Annual maintenance costs for inside the 67-year-old memorial exceed $800,000, members of the war memorial’s board of trustees wrote to lawmakers in April.
Status: The Assembly bill unanimously passed the Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs in June but hasn’t been scheduled for an Assembly vote. The Senate bill was introduced in May and referred to a legislative committee.
More veterans benefits
Senate Bill 2/Assembly Bill 27
Lead authors: Jacque/Murphy
Summary:The bills would expand the definition of veterans in Wisconsin to include people who served in Special Guerrilla Units operating in Laos during the Vietnam War and were naturalized under the Hmong Veterans’ Naturalization Act of 2000. It would not include admission to state veterans homes or burial in a veterans cemetery. Those are subject to federal laws.
Of note: In January testimony, Jacque said that there are as many as 1,000 Hmong veterans in Wisconsin.
Status: The Senate bill passed the chamber in May. The Assembly bill passed the Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs but has not been scheduled for a floor vote.
Senate Bill 387/Assembly Bill 389
Lead authors: Jacque/Franklin
Summary: The bills would change the definition of veteran to allow former members of the U.S. Army reserves or the National Guard to indicate their veteran status on their driver’s license or identification card. Current law does not allow veterans of the reserves or the National Guard to include that status on licenses.
Of note: A fiscal estimate for the bill from the WDVA states that license applicants who want their veteran status on their identification must provide verification of their eligibility to the agency or a county veterans service officer. The agency processes 6,000 to 7,000 veteran status forms each year.
Status: Both bills were introduced and referred to legislative committees.
Senate Bill 505
Lead author: Smith
Summary: The bill would allow disabled veterans with an up-to-date deer hunting license to hunt deer of either sex during any open firearm season, which is currently only available to active members of the U.S. military who are on furlough or leave in Wisconsin.
Of note: A fiscal estimate for the bill suggests about 5,947 gun deer licenses sold by the Department of Natural Resources in the 2025 fiscal year were purchased by disabled veterans.
Status: The bill was introduced in October and referred to a legislative committee.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Wisconsin candidates now have a path to get off the ballot besides dying, thanks to a proposal Gov. Tony Evers signed into law on Friday.
The proposal was triggered by 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s failed attempt to withdraw from the ballot in a bid to boost President Donald Trump’s candidacy. The case made its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which rejected Kennedy’s argument after a lower court ruled that death was the only way for nominees to drop off the ballot.
Under the measure that Evers, a Democrat, signed into law, candidates can now get off the ballot as long as they file to withdraw at least seven business days before the Wisconsin Elections Commission certifies candidates ahead of the August and November elections and pay processing fees to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The measure doesn’t apply to the February and April elections.
Many county clerks had opposed an earlier version of the legislation because the originally proposed deadline to drop out would have disrupted tight timelines to prepare, print and send off ballots on time. That deadline would have allowed candidates to get off the ballot any time before the election commission certified candidates’ names.
To address those concerns, Rep. David Steffen, the Republican author of the measure, amended the proposal to require candidates to let the commission know at least seven business days ahead of time. The law also would charge anybody impersonating a candidate to get off the ballot with a felony.
The measure passed the Assembly with a voice vote. It passed the Senate 19-14, with just two Democratic votes in favor.
Steffen called the new law a win for Wisconsin voters, adding in a statement that it will “reduce unnecessary voter confusion.”
Clerks say they can adjust to ballot law
The new law won’t change operations much, said Wood County Clerk Trent Miner, a Republican in a county of about 74,000. Miner’s office programs and prepares the county’s ballots, which he said would make readjusting the ballots easier.
La Crosse County Clerk Ginny Dankmeyer, a Democrat, said a candidate dropping out at the last minute would still lead to extra hours of work since ballots are generally ready to be printed by then. But Dankmeyer added that it’s still doable and won’t stress her out. She said the new deadline is far better than the originally proposed one.
The Wisconsin law prohibiting withdrawal in cases besides death stood out nationwide as unusually strict. The state used to allow nominees to drop off the ballot if they declined to run, but it changed the policy in 1977 to the one that was active until Evers signed the new law last week.
Many other states allow nominees to drop off the ballot between 60 and 85 days before an election. Some states require polling places to have notices clarifying candidates’ withdrawal if they drop out after ballots are already printed.
His lawyers requested that clerks cover up his name on the ballot with stickers, a proposal that clerks said could lead to tabulator jams and disenfranchised voters. Kennedy still received 17,740 votes, or about 0.5% of the vote. Trump won the state by a little less than a percentage point.
Election Day 2026 is now 365 days away. Over the next year Wisconsin voters will cast their ballots in a number of races that will set the future direction of the Badger State.
Voters will see candidates — and campaign ads — in 2026 for races from the governor’s office to the Capitol’s legislative chambers to the halls of Congress. Many of the top statewide races feature open seats, which will mean new faces in offices following next year’s elections.
There is much on the line. Will Republicans retake control of the governor’s office? Will Democrats win a majority in either chamber of the Legislature? Will the liberal majority grow on the Wisconsin Supreme Court?
Here are five election storylines Wisconsin Watch is following as the state heads into 2026.
Another Wisconsin Supreme Court race
Before next November, Wisconsin has another Supreme Court race in April.
Appeals Court judges Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor are running for the seat currently held by Justice Rebecca Bradley, who announced in August she would not run for another 10-year term on the court. While it’s still possible for other candidates to enter for February primary contests, signs point to Lazar and Taylor as the likely contestants.
The candidates are political polar opposites, even as Wisconsin’s judicial races remain “nonpartisan” in name only. Lazar is a conservative former Waukesha County Circuit Court judge, who served as an assistant attorney general during former Gov. Scott Walker’s administration and defended key policies in court, including the administration’s voter ID laws. Taylor, a former policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, served as a Democrat in the Assembly before Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointed her to the Dane County Circuit Court in 2020. She ran unopposed for an appellate seat in 2023.
But, unlike the 2024 and 2025 Supreme Court elections, the race between Lazar and Taylor is not for a majority on the court. That makes it less likely to draw record spending than previous years, said David Julseth, a data analyst with the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Still, Taylor has already raised more than $500,000 in the first half of the year, according to campaign finance reports. The financial position for Lazar, who announced her candidacy in early October, will become clearer after fundraising reports are filed in January.
Will Democrats flip the Senate? Will Republicans maintain the Assembly majority?
Republicans have controlled both the Assembly and the Senate since 2011. But while the GOP held onto majorities in both chambers in 2024, Democrats flipped 14 Senate and Assembly seats last year to further chip away at Republican control.
The party breakdown in the Legislature this session is 18-15 in the Senate and 54-45 in the Assembly.
The attention of political watchers is on the Senate where Democratic Campaign Committee communications director Will Karcz said gains in 2024 put the party in a good position to win a majority in 2026.
The Assembly poses more of a challenge. Twelve Assembly seats were won within less than 5 percentage points in 2024. Just five of those races were won by Republicans, so Democrats would have to flip those seats and maintain the seven other close contests from 2024 to win a majority next year. And those five include some of the more moderate Republican members, such as Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville.
The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee is eyeing three districts currently held by Republicans in parts of the state where portions of the new legislative maps will be tested for the first time. They include the 5th District held by Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield; the 17th District held by Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green; and the 21st District held by Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine. Democrats running in those districts include Rep. Robyn Vining in the 5th, Rep. Jenna Jacobson in the 17th and Racine Transit and Mobility Director Trevor Jung in the 21st.
The party is also eyeing the 25th District seat held by Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Birchwood, as a potentially competitive race.
Democrats would gain a majority in the Senate if the party flips two seats and holds onto District 31 held by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick. Republican Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, in mid-October announced he plans to run for the District 31 seat. James moved to Thorp after his home in Altoona was drawn out of his seat in the 23rd District, but last month said he planned to “come home.”
Who will be the gubernatorial nominees?
Wisconsin’s 2026 gubernatorial election is the state’s first since 2010 without an incumbent on the ballot. Evers announced in July he would not seek a third term, opening up the field for competitive primaries ahead of the general election next November.
Neither candidate field is set at this point, but two Republicans and seven Democrats already announced gubernatorial campaigns this year. There is still a long stretch of campaigning before Wisconsin voters choose their candidates. The Marquette University Law School Poll released Oct. 29 shows a majority of registered voters haven’t heard enough about the candidates. Additionally, 70% of Republicans and 81% of Democrats have yet to decide on a primary candidate, the poll shows.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann make up the current Republican primary field. Tiffany is positioned as the front-runner largely due to the base of more than 700,000 residents in his congressional district, said Bill McCoshen, a lobbyist and Republican strategist who previously worked for former Gov. Tommy Thompson.
Tiffany and Schoemann are both “consistent conservatives,” and a clean primary between the two candidates could benefit Republicans further into next year, McCoshen said.
“Republicans did a lot of damage to themselves in the 2022 primary and weren’t able to put the whole house back together in time for the general,” McCoshen said. “There are a lot of Republicans who, sadly, did not vote for (2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee) Tim Michels, and we can’t have a repeat of that.”
The Democrats include Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Madison state Rep. Francesca Hong, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. leader Missy Hughes, former Madison state Rep. Brett Hulsey, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Madison state Sen. Kelda Roys and beer vendor Ryan Strnad.
The unanswered question for Democrats is whether former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes enters the primary contest. Some polls already indicate Barnes, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 and narrowly lost to Sen. Ron Johnson, would be the Democratic front-runner if he enters the race.
The Marquette poll shows none of the Democratic primary candidates has reached double-digit percentage support. Hong had the most support among Democrats at 6% with Rodriguez next at 4%.
Will there be a congressional shake-up in the 3rd District?
All eight of Wisconsin’s congressional districts are up for election in 2026, but the race to watch is the 3rd Congressional District in western Wisconsin currently held by U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden.
Van Orden was elected to the 3rd District in 2022. It had been held by former Democratic Rep. Ron Kind for 26 years before he retired. In his two terms in Congress, Van Orden, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, has garnered a reputation as a polarizing political figure.
“Derrick Van Orden does not have as firm a grip on the district as incumbents do, like Bryan Steil, in their districts,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center and political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “He’s a controversial figure. He’s given his opponents a lot of material that could be used against him.”
Van Orden won reelection in 2024 by less than 3 percentage points over Democrat Rebecca Cooke. The 2026 contest will most likely be a rematch between Van Orden and Cooke, a waitress who previously ran a Democratic fundraising company.
In 2024 and 2026, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put the Van Orden-Cooke race on the party’s lists of flippable House seats. National election analysis sites, such as the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, rate Wisconsin’s 3rd District as a toss-up.
Wisconsin voters in the Northwoods will see an open contest in the 7th Congressional District with Tiffany’s exit to run for governor. At least three Republicans have already announced campaigns in the 7th: former 3rd District candidate Jessi Ebben, Ashland attorney Paul Wassgren and Michael Alfonso, the son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
That seat is likely safe for Republicans. Tiffany won reelection in 2024 by 27 percentage points.
What will the voter mood be in 2026?
Signs are beginning to emerge as to what mood voters will be in as they head to the polls.
Democrats could benefit from a midterm election year, where Trump is not on the ballot and elections often favor the opposite party of the White House.
Since Trump’s inauguration in January, his administration has garnered headlines for its immigration policies, cuts to federal government agencies and the deployment of the National Guard to Democratic cities, such as Chicago. Opposition to Trump and his policies has led to mass demonstrations across the country this year.
“National politics now is largely a battle between the Trump administration and Democratic governors and attorneys general around the country,” Burden said. “So I think Trump is going to be near the center of the governor’s race.”
Inflation and the cost of living are the top issue for Wisconsin’s registered voters heading into 2026, which could also support Democratic candidates running against Republicans currently in office. The poll found 83% of Democrats, 79% of independents and 54% of Republicans are “very concerned” about inflation. The top concern for Republicans, according to the poll, is illegal immigration and border security, with 75% of Wisconsin GOP respondents saying they are “very concerned” about the issue.
“Inflation stuff is much more of a problem for the Republicans at this point because presidents tend to get blamed for that,” said Charles Franklin, the Marquette poll director. “Across all of our questions that touch on inflation, cost of living, price of groceries, those are some pretty grim numbers if you’re the incumbent party that may be held to account for it. We saw how much that damaged Biden when inflation spiked in the summer of 2022.”
Republicans, though, could benefit from increasing voter concern about property taxes. The Marquette poll shows 56% of voters say reducing property taxes is more important than funding public education — a reversal from responses to that question during the 2018 and 2022 elections that Evers won. And 57% of voters said they would be more likely to vote against a school referendum, a huge swing from just four months ago when 52% said they would support a referendum.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
As a 19-year-old election worker in Hennepin County, Minnesota, Lydia McComas discovered how meaningful it was to help voters navigate the process. Less than a decade later, she’s the city clerk in Madison, Wisconsin, overseeing one of the most scrutinized election offices in the state and working to rebuild trust after last year’s ballot mishandling scandal.
Between those two points, McComas followed an unusually direct path: a college internship supporting elections planning, then a full-time job in a county elections office along with a graduate program in election administration.
She’s part of an emerging generation of officials who set out early and very intentionally, through internships and university training, to make a career out of election work. Driving this movement toward professionalized election administration are veterans of the field who recognize the need to replace retiring clerks and have spent years creating a stronger, more sustainable pipeline.
Together they are transforming a profession once dominated by civic-minded volunteers and on-the-job learners.
“I’d love for more young people to get involved with election administration and explore it as a future career,” McComas told Votebeat in an interview.
For now, McComas is an outlier in Wisconsin: At 28, she’s among the youngest to hold a municipal clerk position — and one of the few who pursued the election profession, on purpose, from the outset. Nearly 80% of the state’s chief election officials are over 50, and fewer than half have a college degree or higher, according to the Elections & Voting Information Center.
Her rise comes amid historic turnover that highlights the urgency of developing the pipeline of election officials: Between 2020 and 2024, more than 700 of Wisconsin’s municipal clerks left their posts, the highest churn in the nation.
The new generation is fully aware that the job has changed since many of those veteran clerks started, said EVIC research director Paul Manson, with their work under closer public examination and intense political pressure.
McComas’ expertise will be tested
McComas’ new role is about more than elections — she’ll take meeting minutes, process licenses and handle business registrations, among other duties. But her expertise is connecting with voters, the media and community partners and explaining complex election procedures in layman’s terms.
That expertise will be tested immediately in Madison, where trust in the city’s election office is still mending after last year’s controversy over 193 missing ballots. The fallout — investigations, a civil lawsuit, and the suspension and resignation of longtime clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl — left voters demanding transparency.
“There’s pressure to make sure that everything works well, that the public trusts us,” McComas said. She knows the climb will be steep. Most of the staff who weathered that turbulent year remain, seasoned administrators now adapting to greater public scrutiny.
The glare of attention on Madison, she said, mirrors the national reality for election administrators everywhere — their jobs are increasingly under the spotlight of polarization and doubt.
“Last year was really tough, and next year is tough,” McComas said, noting the four statewide elections ahead in 2026.
An early start in the workings of elections
People take different paths into election administration. Milwaukee’s chief election official, Paulina Gutiérrez, came from public safety and legislative work, while Green Bay Clerk Celestine Jeffreys was the mayor’s chief of staff. Others arrive from outside government — teachers, bankers or longtime poll workers who worked their way up.
McComas’ journey into this world started early. As a kid in Minneapolis, she tagged along with her parents to the polls, filling out mock ballots and proudly wearing an “I will vote” sticker. She also joined them knocking on doors for get-out-the-vote drives. Those formative experiences led her to study political science at the University of Minnesota, volunteer on campaigns and intern for U.S. Sen. Al Franken.
Her time on campaigns confirmed that the partisan side of politics wasn’t for her. “I was used to talking to people regardless of their party,” McComas said. “Working for candidates and not doing that just felt wrong.”
Her first job in elections was a college internship with Hennepin County in 2017, supporting the election department on planning, updating training manuals and legislative priorities. McComas was struck by the precision required in running elections and wanted to devote her career to it, she said.
After graduating, she joined Hennepin County Elections full time, first as a general election administrator and then specializing in voter engagement for a jurisdiction of 700,000 voters in and around Minneapolis. She helped voters get registered and answered questions about voting during a pandemic.
She also oversaw compliance with election laws and developed training for poll workers.
Meanwhile, she pursued a graduate certificate in election administration from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
She was hired in Madison in August.
A new era for training for election officials
Academic programs like the one McComas followed, focusing on elections as a career path, are more common today, but still rare at most universities, where public affairs education focuses more on city management, emergency planning and public health, said Tammy Patrick, chief program officer at the National Association of Election Officials and a longtime election administration educator.
The ones that exist are growing: The University of Minnesota’s election program had just over 50 enrollees in 2017. In 2025, there were over 200. In addition to the Humphrey School, Auburn University offers a graduate certificate in election administration, and Northern Arizona University now provides an undergraduate program.
Meanwhile, 43 states, including Wisconsin, have other types of programs to train local election officials, a Bipartisan Policy Center analysis found. Wisconsin is also among the 22 states offering training specific to new election officials. The Arizona Secretary of State’s Arizona Fellows program places students in county election offices, boosting interest in election work and helping offices engage younger, more diverse voters.
Patrick, who has taught at the Humphrey School since 2016, sees an urgent need to formalize the field and promote it to youth because so many older clerks are retiring.
“It’s just not on anyone’s radar as an option,” Patrick said, “and I think that that’s part of the work we need to do as a profession, which is particularly challenging in this environment, because now people are aware of election administration for all the wrong reasons.”
Formalizing the pipeline might be even harder for Wisconsin, where most municipal clerks work part time, and most who work full time spend much of the year working on things besides elections.
McComas said that both Madison and Hennepin County try to do local outreach to universities and have interns to promote election administration as a career path.
Still, she finds herself explaining to many people that running elections is a full-time job, not just a poll-working gig for several days a year.
McComas says she’s prepared for challenge in Madison
In Madison, McComas said her first goal is to rebuild trust.
She plans to draw on her voter engagement background to make that happen. Under interim clerk Mike Haas, the city overhauled many of the systems that failed in the 2024 election, but those improvements, she said, went largely unnoticed because there wasn’t a strong communications plan.
“Next year,” she said, “we will be able to show the public that we are transparent and that we are answering any questions.”
Although her career doesn’t go back decades, McComas said her experience has prepared her for this moment. Her graduate certificate program gave her a broader perspective, she said, and helped reaffirm her commitment to the role.
Beyond school, McComas said the work — and the people she met in Hennepin County — sparked a lasting passion for election administration. Surrounded by colleagues who shared her dedication and curiosity, she found a community she wanted to be part of for the long haul.
“I knew I wanted to devote my career to that work,” she said.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to overhaul Wisconsin’s prisons is set for a crucial vote this week that could determine whether the state can meet a 2029 closure of the Green Bay Correctional Institution and the long-awaited shutdown of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth facilities.
The State Building Commission at a public meeting Tuesday is expected to vote on whether to release $15 million for advancing Evers’ plan, an amount the Legislature included in the 2025-27 biennial budget. Subcommittees will meet prior to the full commission Tuesday afternoon, which could signal how Republican members may vote on the money for Evers’ plan. Republican lawmakers were tight-lipped Monday morning about whether they have an alternative plan and whether they plan to roll it out Tuesday.
Evers in February announced what he called a “domino series” of projects that would include closing Green Bay Correctional Institution, converting Lincoln Hills into a facility for adults and turning Waupun’s prison into a “vocational village” that would offer job skill training to qualifying inmates. Evers describes the plan as the most realistic and cost-effective way to stabilize the state’s prison population.
The Green Bay prison has been roundly criticized as unsafe and outdated, Lincoln Hills has only in recent months come into compliance with a court-ordered plan to remedy problems dating back a decade, and Waupun has had lockdowns, inmate deaths and criminal charges against a former warden.
The $15 million would fund initial plans and a design report that would allow capital projects in Evers’ proposals to be funded in the 2025-27 budget, according to the governor’s office. It would also prevent delays of Evers’ plan while he is still in office. Evers is not seeking reelection next year, and Wisconsin will have a new governor in 2027.
But it’s unclear how the eight-member commission, which includes four Republicans, will vote on whether to release the $15 million for the governor’s plan. Sens. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, and Andre Jacqué, R-New Franken, declined to comment while still reviewing the proposals. Reps. Rob Swearingen, R-Rhinelander, and Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia, did not respond to questions from Wisconsin Watch.
In addition to Evers, the commission includes Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska; Rep. Jill Billings, D-La Crosse; and citizen member Barb Worcester, who served as one of Evers’ initial deputy chiefs of staff.
Pfaff, who said he will support Evers’ request, said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the $15 million will get approved with the necessary bipartisan support for it to pass. It’s not a final policy decision, Pfaff said.
“I think it’s important to know that the proposal that’s being brought forward is a design and planning stage, so it’s not the end-all or be-all,” Pfaff said.
At least one Republican, Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, has asked fellow party members on the commission to support Evers’ request. Howard represents a district near the Green Bay Correctional Institution.
“I believe that the release of the $15 million will be important in moving corrections planning forward in our state,” Steffen wrote in an Oct. 14 letter to the Republican commission members.
Corrections plans in the Legislature
The funding for Evers’ prison plan, which was included in the governor’s original budget proposal, totaled $325 million. During the budget process the Legislature approved just $15 million for corrections projects and a 2029 closure of the Green Bay Correctional Institution.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, criticized the governor for not including GOP lawmakers in the process and suggested the party would form its own plan.
“The idea of letting thousands of people out of jail early, tearing down prisons and not replacing the spots, I can’t imagine our caucus will go for it,” Vos told reporters in February.
A spokesperson for Vos did not respond to questions from Wisconsin Watch about whether the party started a process for forming its own plan. Evers in July partially vetoed the 2029 deadline for the Green Bay Correctional Institution and criticized Republicans for setting a date without providing a plan to close the prison.
While lawmakers on the State Building Commission have since been tight-lipped about which way they plan to vote, leaders in both Waupun and Allouez — on whose land Green Bay Correctional sits — haven’t been shy to express their support for the plan.
Waupun Mayor Rohn Bishop said he favors any plan that will keep Waupun Correctional Institution open. With three prisons within its jurisdiction, Waupun has been called Prison City in honor of its major employers.
“We take pride in the fact it’s here,” Bishop said of the 180-year-old prison.
Under the proposal, Waupun’s prison would turn from a traditional, maximum prison to what’s been called a vocational village that would offer job-skill training to those who qualify. The idea is modeled after similar programs in Michigan, Missouri and Louisiana.
“The first and most important thing is to keep the prison here for the economic reasons of the jobs, what it does for Waupun utilities, and how our wastewater sewage plant is built for the prison,” Bishop said. “If it were to close, that would shift to the ratepayers.”
In recent years, complaints about dire conditions within the cell halls have mounted, with inmates describing a crumbling infrastructure and infestations of birds and rodents. Under Evers’ proposal, Waupun’s prison would have to temporarily close while the facility undergoes renovations.
Meanwhile, under Evers’ plan, Green Bay’s prison is slated to close. In Allouez, where the prison stands, village President Jim Rafter said the closure can’t come soon enough.
“I’m more optimistic than ever that the plans will move forward this time,” Rafter said, pointing to the bipartisan support he has seen on the issue.
For Rafter, his eagerness to close the prison is partly economic: The prison currently stands on some of the most valuable real estate in Brown County, he said, and redeveloping it would be a financial boon for the village of Allouez.
But it also comes from safety concerns for both correctional officers and inmates.
“GBCI historically has been one of the most dangerous facilities across Wisconsin, built in the 1800s, and it has well outlived its usefulness,” Rafter said. “Its design doesn’t allow for safe passage of inmates from one area to the other. So safety is a huge concern.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
In the days following the release of my report focused on the shortage of public defenders in Wisconsin, Tracy Germait — the main subject of the story, who after three years and more than 10,000 calls still didn’t have a defense attorney — received a flood of messages.
“I know they passed out the newsletter in the jails because I have a friend that’s in Redgranite (Correctional Institution), and he’s like, ‘I seen your article,’” Germait said. “Then somebody in Brown County (jail) messaged me too and said that. I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’”
On Sept. 8, Wisconsin Watch published the investigation. The next day Germait saw her story on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hours later Germait received notice that a Milwaukee-based criminal defense attorney, Jane Christopherson, had taken on her drug cases from 2022 and 2023.
Without an attorney earlier, Germait spent years in legal limbo despite her constitutional rights. Like many other Wisconsin residents caught up in the criminal justice system, she had to abide by bail conditions or face time in prison related to crimes she had not yet been tried for.
Now that Germait has an attorney, she will report to court on Oct. 22 for the preliminary hearing for her 2023 case. After that, she will report to court again in November for her 2022 case.
Germait also recently passed her Wisconsin state exam to be a certified parent peer specialist for the next two years, supporting parents and families who are navigating similar situations.
Wisconsin’s court system is under intense stress, and yet when lawmakers had a chance to address those issues in the latest state budget, they increased funding for prosecutors to file more cases, rather than protecting more people’s right to a speedy trial. Our story points out the toll that legislative decisions can take on individuals when their Sixth Amendment right is neglected, exacerbating jail crowding, eroding evidence and witness testimony for cases, and decreasing the strength of cases due to overburdened public defenders.
At Wisconsin Watch, we’re thrilled to shed a light on stories like Germait’s and see individual problems get resolved. We remain hopeful that the bigger problems get solved, too.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to remove an incorrect description of Christopherson’s representation of Germait.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A new Republican bill that would exempt certain life-saving medical procedures from falling under the definition of “abortion” is drawing criticism from medical professionals despite being described by its authors as an attempt to protect reproductive health care.
Under the bill, introduced on Friday, medical procedures “designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant woman and not designed or intended to kill the unborn child” would not fall under Wisconsin’s abortion definition. They would also not be subject to state laws prohibiting funding for “abortion-related activities” and Wisconsin’s ban on abortion past 20 weeks.
The bill, authored by Rep. Joy Goeben, R-Hobart, and Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Birchwood, specifically exempts early inductions or cesarean sections performed in cases of ectopic, anembryonic or molar pregnancies from being considered abortion so long as the physician conducting them makes “reasonable medical efforts” to save both parent and unborn child from harm.
Moreover, the bill would change the definition of “unborn child” in Wisconsin statute from “a human being from the time of conception until it is born alive” to “a human being from the time of fertilization until birth.”
OBGYN Carley Zeal, a representative for the Wisconsin Medical Society and fellow at Physicians for Reproductive Health, said “unborn child” is not a medically recognized term because doctors don’t confer personhood to a fertilized egg or fetus. Legal expert Howard Schweber told Wisconsin Watch he doesn’t expect changing the definition of “unborn child” to begin at fertilization will have a meaningful impact.
Abortion as a political issue hits deep in the heart of Wisconsin, where Marquette Law School polls since 2020 show 64% of all voters believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Democrats have campaigned in support of eliminating restrictions on abortion, while Republicans, who in 2015 passed the state’s current ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy, have sought to increase restrictions on, penalize or ban abortion completely.
The bill follows multiple successive changes to Wisconsin’s abortion law since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and returned the issue of abortion to individual states — leaving Wisconsin scrambling to put together a consistent abortion policy.
The new GOP bill also seems to nod toward several high-profile national incidents of patients dying from being denied reproductive care in states with restrictive abortion bans, even when the bans include exceptions for abortion care if a patient’s life is in danger.
One National Institutes of Health study found that after Texas’s abortion ban was passed, maternal morbidity during the gestational period doubled from the time before the law despite it having a medical emergency clause.
Goeben and Quinn stated in a memorandum that their bill seeks to “counter misinformation spread by bad actors” about doctors not performing needed medical care for fear of being criminalized under abortion statutes. Goeben told Wisconsin Watch she consulted with physicians about the bill and believes it will reassure them of their ability to provide this care.
“A doctor may at all times, no matter where the state is at on the abortion issue, feel very confident in providing the health care that women need in these very challenging situations that women face,” Goeben said.
Medical and legal experts weigh in
Both Zeal and Sheboygan OBGYN Leslie Abitz, a member of both the state medical society, the Committee to Protect Healthcare and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said they oppose the bill.
They argue it is an attempt by the Wisconsin Legislature to use “emotionally charged, ideologically driven, non-medical terms” to “interfere with the patient-physician relationship” in medical care.
“The stated goal of the bill — to distinguish between medical procedures from abortion — is misleading because it suggests that abortion care is not an essential part of comprehensive health care,” Abitz said.
“A woman is putting her health and her life at risk every time she chooses to carry a pregnancy, and so she shouldn’t be mandated to put her life at risk.”
Schweber views the bill differently. While a clause in Wisconsin’s 20-week abortion ban statutes already exempts abortions performed for the “life or health of the mother,” he believes Goeben and Quinn’s bill could make hospitals and insurance companies more comfortable with authorizing lifesaving reproductive health care procedures.
“Insurance companies and hospitals or doctors, in order to err on the side of safety, will tell the doctors not to perform a procedure that is medically needed and, in fact, properly legal,” Schweber said. “(This) law is trying to prevent a chilling effect on legal medical procedures.”
Though the bill is not yet formally introduced, the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit composed of physicians, nurses and public health practitioners specializing in abortion and contraception science, opposes it.
“The narrative that exceptions to an abortion ban — or redefining what abortion care is — can mitigate the harm of restrictive policies is based in ideology, not evidence,” Executive Director Amanda Dennis said in a statement.
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has not yet taken a position on the bill, but told Wisconsin Watch that state medical emergency clauses “do not offer adequate protection for the myriad (of) pregnancy complications people experience, resulting in substantial harm to patients” in the case of an abortion ban.
Political reaction to the bill
Prominent Democratic lawmakers, such as gubernatorial candidate Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, have criticized the proposed bill as part of a series of moves by anti-abortion politicians to distance themselves from the “deadly” consequences of abortion bans.
“The way that you protect people from legal jeopardy is by not criminalizing health care,” Roys said. “Goeben’s bill just shows how deadly and dangerous criminalizing abortion bans are. It’s an acknowledgement of the truth, which is that abortion bans kill women.”
Goeben said she is surprised by the opposition because her bill on its own does not introduce any additional penalties to abortion.
“These are the issues that the other side of the aisle has talked about, saying, ‘oh, the poor women that can’t get health care!’” Goeben said. “So I thought honestly that this would be supported by everybody, if we are really concerned about the health care of women.”
She said she would also be open to discussing amendments to the bill, which would include exemptions for abortions performed because of other medical complications such as preeclampsia or maternal sepsis.
Anti-abortion organizations Wisconsin Right to Life, Pro-Life Wisconsin, Wisconsin Catholic Conference and Wisconsin Family Action have endorsed the proposal.
A similar bill by Quinn prior to the Wisconsin Supreme Court invalidating Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban in July died in the Senate last year. Even if the new bill is to pass through the Legislature, Gov. Tony Evers plans to veto it, spokesperson Britt Cudaback told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Looming gubernatorial, attorney general and legislative races in 2026 could decide the future of abortion laws and enforcement in the state. New legislative maps and a national midterm environment that historically has favored the party out of power in the White House gives Democrats their best chance to win control of the Legislature since 2010.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the GOP frontrunner for governor, previously supported a bill planning to ban abortion after six weeks, though he has rolled back that position in recent media appearances and deleted all mention of abortion from his website.
Schweber said Wisconsin’s newly liberal majority Supreme Court will decide the future of abortion in the state. The justices must answer the cases being brought to them on whether the state constitution guarantees a right to an abortion.
“Just because the U.S. Constitution does not secure a right to abortion does not mean that Wisconsin or Ohio or Texas constitutionally doesn’t have that right,” he said. “Each state supreme court now has to decide this profound question.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to remove an incorrect description of the Society of Family Planning and to include additional background for Zeal and Abitz.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
The median price of a home in Wisconsin rose nearly 120% over the past decade, from $155,000 to $337,000 according to data from the Wisconsin Realtors Association.
But median Wisconsin incomes have increased only about 50% in that time period, illustrating just one of the reasons why voters and politicians are increasingly concerned about a housing affordability crisis.
Past bipartisan efforts at the Capitol have worked to address these issues. In 2023, the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers dedicated more than $500 million in the biennial budget toward several loan programs at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority aimed at creating new affordable housing, rehabilitating homes and transitioning space in commercial buildings.
But state lawmakers and both Democratic and Republican candidates for governor in 2026 are seeking more ways to address Wisconsin’s housing challenges.
Multiple bills passed through the Assembly in early October, from a proposal with a financial mechanism to ease the costs of infrastructure for building homes to another creating a grant program for converting multifamily housing into condominiums.
Several of the proposals received public hearings in the Senate’s Committee on Insurance, Housing, Rural Issues and Forestry last week and lawmakers could vote on them in the coming weeks.
What bills are in the Legislature?
The housing bills making their way through the Legislature touch on multiple avenues to boost the state’s supply of affordable housing.
One set of proposals creates a residential tax increment district, which can ease the costs of housing infrastructure on developers and lower the initial price of starter homes.
“We’re not talking about subsidized housing, we’re talking about affordable housing … the housing stock that was built just a generation or two ago,” Rep. Robert Brooks, R-Saukville, said at a September press conference. “We’re talking about small ranch homes, bungalow homes, some of those homes built without garages or alleyways or detached garages.”
Rep. Robert Brooks, R-Saukville, is seen during a convening of the Assembly at the Wisconsin State Capitol on Jan. 25, 2020 in Madison, Wis.
Another set of bills would establish a condo conversion reimbursement program administered by WHEDA. Legislation would provide $50,000 per parcel to convert multifamily properties to condominiums, according to the bills. The dollars would be funded through up to $10 million from a WHEDA housing rehabilitation loan program created in 2023.
Other legislative proposals include requiring cities to allow accessory dwelling units on residential land with a single family home. But Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, expressed concerns over a prohibition on short-term rentals for accessory dwelling units.
Assembly Democrats in early October argued some of the Republican proposals fall short. An amendment offered by Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, would have allowed housing cooperatives to participate in the condo conversion program. It failed after Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, raised concerns about the renovation costs of housing co-ops, which Nass referred to as “communes,” while he disparaged Clancy, a Democratic Socialist, as a “communist.”
“I will be voting for this… but it is so disappointing to have to do that because we had something better in front of us,” Clancy said.
State Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, speaks at a press conference on Nov. 2, 2023, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. (Evan Halpop / Wisconsin Watch)
Wisconsin state Sen. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, is seen at the State of the State Address at the Capitol in Madison, Wis. on Jan. 10, 2017. (Coburn Dukehart / Wisconsin Watch)
What are candidates for governor proposing?
The candidate field for Wisconsin’s 2026 gubernatorial race is not yet finalized, but housing affordability is a priority for many of the candidates who responded to questions from Wisconsin Watch.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany told Wisconsin Watch he wants to lower housing costs through freezing property taxes and cutting government regulations. Tiffany additionally said he wants to explore how to steer the state’s housing affordability programs to focus on homeownership rather than renting.
“We need a red tape reset that cuts regulations and lowers costs while keeping safety a priority,” Tiffany said in a statement to Wisconsin Watch.
A campaign spokesperson for Republican Josh Schoemann said the Washington county executive would bring county programs statewide. The Heart and Homestead Earned Downpayment Incentive program helped Washington County residents with down payment loans on homes under $420,000, which could be repaid through volunteering or charitable donations. Another program, Next Generation Housing, brought together developers and local government leaders to encourage development of smaller starter homes in Washington County below $420,000.
Democratic candidates said their housing plans focused on local engagement and encouraging different financial and zoning reforms to boost affordable housing construction in Wisconsin.
A campaign spokesperson for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said Crowley would gather local leaders in rural, urban and suburban communities to find housing solutions that fit their communities. Crowley has done this with partners to build affordable housing throughout Milwaukee County, the spokesperson said.
Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, said in a statement that as governor she would use a combination of tax incentives, zoning reform and public bank-backed construction financing stabilization to make it easier to build affordable housing. She said she would also encourage home ownership models such as community land trusts and limited-equity co-ops.
Rental properties in downtown Madison, Wis., seen on March 25, 2020.
Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said she would direct more dollars to existing affordable housing programs to speed up the time it takes for developers to get necessary funding. Roys said she wants changes to zoning laws to allow types of housing that works for certain neighborhoods around the state, such as accessory dwelling units or higher density housing in transit and commercial corridors. Additionally, Roys said she would encourage more market-rate housing development and expand support systems such as housing vouchers to help ease costs of buying a home.
Crowley, Hong and Roys all expressed interest in a Right to Counsel program that would provide free legal representation for tenants at risk of eviction.
A campaign spokesperson for Missy Hughes, the former head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said Hughes will share a more “comprehensive vision” of her housing plan over the course of the campaign.
Beer vendor Ryan Strnad said he would be open to increasing subsidies for lower-income housing across the state.
Notable
Watch your mail if you’re a disabled worker. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development began sending notices to 13,000 disabled workers who might be eligible for past unemployment benefits they were previously denied.
Several legislative committees meet at the Capitol this week. Here are a few worth watching:
Assembly Committee on Agriculture: The committee on Tuesday will hold a public hearing on Assembly Bill 30, which would entirely prevent a foreign adversary from acquiring agriculture or forestry land in Wisconsin. The bill follows a national trend of states that are passing stricter prohibitions on who can purchase farmland. Current state law prohibits foreign adversaries from holding more than 640 acres for purposes tied to agriculture or forestry.
Senate Committee on Health: Lawmakers will hear public testimony during its meeting Wednesday on Senate Bill 534, a Republican-led bill to legalize medical mairjuana and create a regulation office for patients and caregivers tied to the Department of Health Services.
Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency: Lawmakers will hold an informational hearing following a Cap Times report that 200 cases of teacher sexual misconduct and grooming cases were shielded from the public between 2018 and 2023.
As the demand for power increases with the rise of data centers, Wisconsin lawmakers are continuing legislative efforts to advance nuclear energy growth in the state.
The issue has previously seen bipartisan support in the Capitol. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in July signed two Republican-led bills into law: one that creates a board to organize a nuclear power summit in Madison and another that directs the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, to study new and existing locations for nuclear power and fusion generation in the state. Nuclear fusion, an emerging technology, produces more energy than nuclear fission and almost no radioactive waste, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
In a statement at the time, Evers called the bills “an important step in the right direction” toward lowering costs, growing the economy, mitigating climate change and reducing Wisconsin’s reliance on out-of-state energy sources.
The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee in August approved $2 million to fund the nuclear power siting study. A spokesperson for the Public Service Commission said the agency is working through “internal processes” to begin the study, including whether outside assistance is needed to complete it. A report is due to the Legislature in early 2027, just after a new governor takes office.
Point Beach Nuclear Plant in Two Rivers is Wisconsin’s lone nuclear power plant, and in late September the federal government extended its licenses to 2050 and 2053.
But the bipartisan interest in boosting Wisconsin’s role as a nuclear energy generator has opened the door for more legislation in the Capitol. State Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, introduced a bill this month that he said builds off the legislation from earlier this summer. Sortwell said his proposal, Assembly Bill 472, aims to ease costs associated with building nuclear power plants through items like tax credits.
Legislation by Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, would prioritize nuclear energy as an option for meeting Wisconsin’s energy demands — including by allowing public utilities to raise consumer rates to recover construction costs. Sortwell is shown during a committee hearing on March 11, 2025, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Evers’ office said the governor has not reviewed Sortwell’s bill. But in a statement, Evers said Wisconsin should invest in options to expand nuclear energy in the state.
“It’s important that we continue our work to help lower energy costs and reduce our reliance on out-of-state energy sources,” Evers said.“With new, advanced nuclear technology and the ever-increasing need for energy across our state, investing in clean energy solutions like innovative nuclear options could be a game-changer for Wisconsin, our economy, and folks across our state.”
Sortwell, who cosponsored the earlier bills, said now, while Evers is still in office, is the time to prioritize nuclear energy policy. Evers is not running for reelection, and Sortwell said an open governor’s race in 2026 could swing power in that office toward a candidate who is less supportive of growing Wisconsin’s role as a nuclear energy producer.
“I don’t want to lose this opportunity when I’ve got a Democrat governor I know who is supportive right now and I may not have one in 15 months,” Sortwell said.
Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the two Republicans running for governor, have both signaled support for nuclear energy.
Among Democratic candidates, two so far shared their position with Wisconsin Watch. Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, said she supports nuclear energy, but not incentivizing its expansion over wind and solar, and not to accelerate the development of data centers. Brewers beer vendor Ryan Strnad said he supports advancing nuclear generation.
The costs of nuclear energy
Sortwell’s bill, scheduled for a hearing Wednesday, includes several provisions, including prioritizing nuclear energy as an option to meet Wisconsin’s energy demands. But it largely focuses on the costs tied to producing nuclear energy, including allowing public utilities to raise consumer rates to recover their construction costs.
“The issue is, nuclear power can have a little bit longer of a time to actually get up and operational,” Sortwell said. “It could take several years and those costs then just kind of build up on the front end.”
The bill would create a tax credit for new nuclear energy generation, which a company could claim over the course of 20 years. EnergySolutions and WEC Energy Group in May announced plans to build a new plant at the Kewaunee Power Station, which would be able to take advantage of the tax credits in the bill upon operating, Sortwell said.
It also allows public utility companies through their rates to recover expenses related to developing nuclear energy sites. Those costs could include dollars for site evaluations or regulatory filings, according to the bill.
But that should be a concern for customers, who would see those expenses in their bills before these plants are even built, said Tom Content, the executive director of the Citizens Utility Board. He pointed to a 2024 We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service request to collect about $200 million from ratepayers for costs associated with building natural gas projects. The Public Service Commission denied the request in July 2024.
“When we’re thinking about the bottom line for customers in the context of bills that are already rising more than inflation, we really need to keep our eye on what people are paying every month for energy and how we can keep that affordable,” Content said.
The bill also eases the regulatory process for private power producers that may seek to generate nuclear energy for “very large customers,” such as data centers, Sortwell said. The legislation would require the Public Service Commission to approve rates and charges if the power generated is nuclear energy within 75 miles of the “very large customer.” Those specifications could put less of a strain on Wisconsin’s power grid, Sortwell said.
Notable
Both the Senate and the Assembly have floor sessions scheduled Tuesday. The Assembly is expected to vote on several law-enforcement-related bills including:
Assembly Bill 136, which would raise the penalty for impersonating a law enforcement officer, firefighter or emergency medical personnel from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Senate Bill 25, which would limit additional investigations into law enforcement officers if a district attorney determines there is no basis to prosecute them for an officer-involved civilian death. Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, cited former Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah as an example for the bill in a February letter to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.
The Senate’s Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges will hold a public hearing Wednesday on Senate Bill 498, which prevents Universities of Wisconsin schools and technical colleges from “restricting free speech protected under the 1st Amendment” and limiting “expressive rights and academic freedom” of instructors. The bill, which was filed in the weeks after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, would allow the attorney general, a district attorney or a person whose rights were violated to sue the UW System Board of Regents or a technical college district board.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the amount We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service requested from ratepayers. The correct amount requested was $200 million.
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