This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
Greenfield resident Nereida Loma planned to vote by mail in November, as she usually does. But the ballot she said she requested never arrived, and city officials had no record of her application.
Rather than risk missing her chance to vote, Loma went to City Hall in the Milwaukee suburb on Tuesday to cast an in-person absentee ballot.
“When you put it in the mail, you don’t know if it’s going to count — if it’s going to come or not,” said Loma, who said she plans to vote in-person from now on.
Loma is among the thousands of Wisconsin voters reconsidering how they cast their ballots amid widely reported issues with the U.S. Postal Service and a continued shift away from mail voting after a pandemic-era peak.
Ahead of the November election, Wisconsin voters have requested about 20% fewer mail ballots than at this point in 2022, and those who have received them are returning them at a slower rate. Election clerks and experts say the trend could reflect concerns about mail delivery, or voters choosing to participate in person despite requesting a ballot.
Several of those voters were at the polls on Tuesday, Wisconsin’s first day of early voting. In Greenfield, Philip Zimmer said that he’s typically an early in-person absentee voter because it’s the easiest option for him. He doesn’t consider mail voting a viable option because of the growing politicization of what was once a standard way to cast a ballot.
“With all this Trump stuff and everything,” he said, “I don’t even bother.”
In New Berlin, a voter who identified herself only as Barb said she typically votes early and not by mail because you “never know if it’s gonna get here.”
In Milwaukee, voter Shan Nelson-Rowe said he has always preferred in-person absentee voting. It’s simpler than mail voting and quicker than voting on Election Day, he said. Plus, he doesn’t trust the Postal Service. He’s noticed others growing wary of it too: His neighbor, who usually mails back his ballot, plans to use a drop box this year because he no longer trusts the mail to deliver it, Nelson-Rowe said.
USPS did not return a request for comment sent Tuesday.
Clerks respond to trend away from mail voting
Clerks are seeing fewer ballot requests and adjusting their advice to voters as concerns about postal delays grow.
Inside the New Berlin City Hall, Clerk Rubina Medina told Votebeat her office is receiving just 25 to 30 mail ballot requests a day, down from 75 to 100 in past elections.
Meanwhile, in-person absentee voting appears to be holding steady. Voters lined up at City Hall on Tuesday morning, and Medina said turnout on the first day of early voting was about as busy as usual.
“The voters are saying they don’t trust the mail,” she said. “We hear that often.”
She said the distrust in the Postal Service is often unwarranted and driven by the media, but that she also does recognize that mail is slower than it used to be.
“We used to advertise a mail-it-back Monday, the week prior to Election Day,” she said. “We now advertise that two weeks prior.”
Election officials across the state have been offering similar advice for months, but the numbers show voters are turning their ballots in more slowly than they have in the past.
As of Tuesday, two weeks before the election, voters had returned 51.5% of the ballots they’ve been sent, down from 55.5% at the same time in 2022. The slowdown is widespread: In 63 of the state’s 72 counties, voters have returned a smaller share of their ballots than they had at this point four years ago.
Across the state, absentee voting is also down so far compared with the November midterm election in 2022. By this time in 2022, voters had returned nearly 259,000 ballots, 26% higher than the current returns of 191,000. The number of sent-out ballots has dropped about 20%, from 466,000 to 372,000.
Clerks and experts respond to what the numbers show
Much of the drop-off in traditional absentee voting can be credited to the passage of time since the pandemic. More voters are simply comfortable voting in person, UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said. But, he said, trust in the U.S. Postal Service has dropped dramatically too. An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found that only 58% of Americans are confident about timely election mail delivery, compared with 71% two years ago.
“Voters are looking for ways to get around the Postal Service,” Burden said. “That can mean waiting until in-person voting opens up in one form or another, or getting a ballot by mail but finding another way to get it back to their clerk’s office.”
To a lesser extent, absentee voting has also gone down because more voters have exited Wisconsin’s list of voters who automatically received absentee ballots on a permanent basis and because a series of high-profile errors around the state involving absentee ballots may have deterred some voters from voting absentee, Burden said.
Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood, a Republican, agreed voters are now motivated to bypass the mail. She expects many voters who have requested a mailed ballot will ultimately leave it blank and instead vote in-person on Election Day.
Sheboygan County Clerk Jon Dolson, also a Republican, agreed. And Milwaukee election chief Paulina Gutiérrez said more and more voters over the last few elections have been dropping off their ballots on Election Day citing similar concerns. She said Milwaukee anticipates that voters “are more comfortable” dropping their ballots off themselves.
Green County Clerk Arianna Voegeli, a Democrat, said she believes part of the drop-off in the share of returned ballots may be due to mail delays.
Some clerks are experiencing that slowdown firsthand: Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, a Democrat, said his son studying in Ireland requested a mail ballot in September. It was sent in late September, he said, and his son still hasn’t received it.
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said she doesn’t know exactly what’s behind the lower ballot-return rate, but said she has heard a lot of concern from voters about mail delays.
“We’re just trying to get the message out that if people still have a by-mail absentee ballot and they want to return it by mail, they need to do so as soon as possible, she said. ”We really do recommend that if you’re returning your ballot by mail, that you do so at least two weeks in advance of the election.”
That was Oct. 20.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
On Wednesday night, the candidates for Wisconsin governor will face off in their only debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election — and based on how the campaign has gone so far, a lot of claims and accusations will fly.
To help voters sort through the noise, Wisconsin Watch and our partners at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have been fact-checking claims about the candidates.
Do you know whether Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee, supports releasing half of Wisconsin’s prison population, or whether homicides have increased 57% under his watch?
How about U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee? Do you know whether he voted to defund the police or for a $68 billion tax break for data centers?
Before you watch the debate at 7 p.m. Wednesday on WISN.com, read on to know the facts.
And before you vote, check out our other Fact Briefs and our comprehensive voter guide too.
No. Tiffany cited Crowley’s 2019 support for Gov. Tony Evers’ goal as support for his claim that Crowley “wants to let half the prison population out in Wisconsin.” Evers’ goal was aimed at gradually achieving the 50% reduction.
No. The number of juvenile homicide victims in Milwaukee County has ranged between 19 and 27 annually, with no clear trend upward or downward, since Crowley took office. Plus, most law enforcement in the county is done by city and village police departments; they are not under the control of the county executive.
Yes. Milwaukee County sales and property taxes have increased while Crowley has been county executive, though property taxes have increased less than the statewide average.
Yes. Crowley gave final approval to a 2022 contract requested by the Sheriff’s Office and approved by the Board of Supervisors that provides communication tablets to inmates and approved a three-year extension in 2025.
No. Congress did not vote up-or-down on giving data center operators a $68 billion tax break. An attack ad cited Tiffany’s vote for the Big Beautiful Bill Act. It contains business tax breaks, including 100% depreciation, but they are available broadly, including for data centers, to deduct the cost of many investments.
Yes. Both have emphasized how they would regulate artificial intelligence data centers, but they also have spoken favorably of them. Crowley: Wisconsin can “become an AI and a data hub not only for the entire country, but for the entire globe.” Tiffany: Data centers are “exciting new technology.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
When Mitchell Berman received an email from Elon Musk asking him to justify his job as a front-line emergency room nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, he began thinking more seriously about how he could make a difference beyond the hospital.
The email came as the Department of Government Efficiency, commonly referred to as DOGE, began making cuts and hiring freezes in spring 2025. More than a year later, Berman is still working emergency room shifts, but is now campaigning as the Democratic challenger to four-term Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.
“I kind of realized if we really wanted to help improve things for folks, not even just at the VA, but for people in our communities, it was going to take somebody from the ground floor standing up and fighting for it,” Berman said.
The southeastern district is emerging as an unexpected battleground as Democrats look to capitalize on a shifting political environment and political newcomer Berman attempts to unseat Steil, who has represented the district since 2019.
Recent polling from Democratic-aligned organizations shows a close race, leading to increased national attention and campaign spending. Democrats point to dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump’s policies and congressional Republicans’ continued support of them as reasons the traditionally Republican district could be more competitive, while Steil noted he has faced significant Democratic spending in the district before and has continued to win.
“We’ve seen national Democrats spend millions of dollars in southeast Wisconsin before,” Steil said. “My strategy remains the same: Go speak directly to voters about the issues that are in front of us, and we have ultimately been successful in earning the support of the majority of voters four times in a row in the southern part of the state.”
About 38% of registered Wisconsin voters approve of Trump’s job performance, according to a Sept. 30 Marquette Law School Poll.
An Oct. 3 poll conducted by Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC showed Berman leading Steil 48% to 47% among likely voters. The poll also found 56% of respondents viewed Trump unfavorably. A Sept. 29 poll from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) found the candidates tied at 48%.
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analyst, recently shifted the district from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican.”
In 2024, a Congressional Leadership Fund poll found Steil leading his challenger Peter Barca, a former member of Congress and Assembly minority leader, by 10 percentage points less than a month ahead of the general election, and Steil went on to win by that much.
Recent election results, however, show differences in how voters in the district have supported presidential, congressional and Supreme Court candidates. Trump carried the district by 4.5 percentage points in 2024. But liberal Supreme Court candidates have won the district by at least 6 percentage points in elections since 2023.
Democratic political strategist Joe Zepecki said the national political environment could make the district more competitive than it has been in previous elections.
“When the political environment is as bad for either party as it is bad for Republicans right now, races that didn’t seem plausible a year ago suddenly get very real,” Zepecki said.
Zepecki said Steil could have difficulty distancing himself from the administration as voters react to Trump’s actions.
“The way that Trump’s choices and congressional Republicans’ refusal to do anything about it is really hamstringing candidates like Steil, who otherwise would be viewed as safer than he finds himself today,” Zepecki said.
Republican political strategist Bill McCoshen, however, said Democrats appear to be “potentially overreacting” to what he said appears to be a favorable national environment for their party. He said he was surprised Democrats are targeting the district.
“Will that national environment still be there in three or four weeks? We don’t know. So I guess as they’re trying to put more seats in play right now, and then they’ll narrow it down to the ones they think they have the best shot at in the final two weeks,” McCoshen said.
Who has the advantage?
Steil in 2026 benefits from advantages in name recognition and financial resources compared to his opponent, McCoshen noted.
A campaign finance report from Oct. 15 showed Steil with more than $4.2 million in his campaign chest, compared with about $338,000 for Berman.
But Berman’s campaign has received additional support from national Democrats. In September, Berman was added to the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program, which provides selected Democratic candidates with additional fundraising and organizational support.
Barca was also added to the program during his 2024 campaign. He said the designation helped raise national money because people want to invest in candidates they believe can win.
He said the political environment changed significantly since he ran.
“The whole focus (in 2024) was putting Biden and Harris on the defensive and because even though things were improving, people didn’t really sense that big of an improvement,” Barca said. “And now though, I mean, it hasn’t been this bad since I think the recession of ’08. So as a consequence, I think it’s a completely different environment than it was.”
Mitchell Berman, the Democratic candidate in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District race, talks to supporters after a town hall for veterans at the Kenosha Union Club on Oct. 1, 2026. (Kenny Yoo for Wisconsin Watch)
Outside groups have also started pouring money into the race, bringing more national attention to the district.
The House Majority PAC has a $2.7 million ad buy planned for this district, according to AdImpact. Steil has still outpaced Berman in overall advertising spending, with about $5.9 million compared with more than $3 million for Berman, WisPolitics reported. The DCCC also made a joint ad buy of more than $270,000 for the Berman campaign.
Republican-aligned groups are also pouring money into the race. The No Going Back Pac, backed by Trump, spent over $400,000 on Steil along with crypto-backed Super PAC Wisconsin Working PAC spending over $500,000.
But Barca said spending may not be enough to overcome a broader political shift if voters remain displeased with the policies supported by Steil and other congressional Republicans.
“This is one of those potentially wave years where money can’t save you,” Barca said. “When you’ve got people hopping mad, and especially given they can connect the dots and tie what’s going on directly to policies that Steil has supported, I think that hurts dramatically.”
Candidates make their case to voters at home
While the political environment and campaign spending have drawn national attention to the race, both candidates are focused on emphasizing their message to voters in the district through their policy priorities and differing visions.
Berman, a political newcomer with more than two decades of experience in health care, is positioning himself as an outsider who can relate to working-class voters.
“I’m the true definition of a working-class candidate. I’m still working shifts in the emergency room as we run the campaign because I have a mortgage to pay,” Berman said. “Unlike Brian Steil, who sort of left for D.C. and kind of forgotten where he comes from, this is my home, and I’m invested in seeing our community do better.”
Berman said his experience in health care has shaped both his campaign and his decision to enter politics. Zepecki said this background could give him an advantage in a race where health care costs are a major concern for voters.
“I think he is exactly the kind of candidate you want at a time when health care costs are among the most severe pain points that families are dealing with,” Zepecki said.
Berman has called for lowering health care costs, restoring Affordable Care Act subsidies and reversing Medicaid cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. He is also campaigning to raise the minimum wage, protect reproductive rights and provide more funding for environmental protection.
He criticized Steil’s support for Trump’s tariffs and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying Steil’s support for policies like these have made life more difficult for Wisconsin residents.
U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil speaks to supporters at the primary election watch party for U.S. Rep. and Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany at the Rustic Manor wedding barn in Hartland, Wis., Aug. 11, 2026. (Zoey Elwood / Wisconsin Watch)
Steil has emphasized securing the border, protecting older adults, supporting law enforcement and that he is “a strong supporter of life,” which signals support for the anti-abortion movement without mentioning the hot-button issue. He also highlighted legislation he supported, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which reduced taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security and increased the standard deduction.
Both candidates emphasized affordability as the top issue for voters in the district, but disagree about the route to addressing it.
Steil said Berman’s policy proposals would put more of a financial burden on taxpayers while Berman said Steil has failed to deliver on promises to lower costs.
“Brian Steil has made a lot of promises to folks here in this district,” Berman said. “He’s been running cycle after cycle on lowering costs, making health care affordable, protecting Social Security, and he, in fact, has not done any of those things.”
Steil pointed to his support for legislation that’s helped lower costs, such as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and legislation to produce more domestic oil and gas to lower household energy and living costs for Americans.
“There’s more work to be done, and I think what you see is a contrast in policies between the radical left at the national stage, supported by my opponent, that would make life more expensive for families here in Wisconsin versus our policies to lower the costs for hardworking families,” Steil said.
The candidates do share some common ground. Both have emphasized supporting veterans, with Berman drawing on more than a decade of experience working at the VA. Both have also emphasized protecting Social Security.
Steil, having won four previous times, said the district has always been competitive and that his strategy remains the same as it has been even with continued efforts by Democrats.
“It’s a swing area of the state, a swing area of the country, which is why my focus is always on the grassroots and on direct voter outreach,” Steil said.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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Wisconsin’s statewide economic development agency has signed at least five nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with data center developers.
Wisconsin Watch previously reported that five communities had signed local NDAs with data center developers. The statewide disclosure increases to eight the number of Wisconsin projects that used an NDA.
NDAs have drawn criticism for keeping the public in the dark about the multibillion-dollar projects while government officials negotiate the terms of a project. Economic development officials say NDAs are necessary to attract businesses to Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s statewide economic development agency has signed at least five nondisclosure agreements with developers of artificial intelligence data centers, adding a previously unknown level of secrecy to the billion-dollar projects.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., a quasi-government state agency, signed one of the NDAs nearly two years before a proposed data center in Menomonie was announced to the public and six months before the city signed its own NDA.
Wisconsin Watch previously revealed that at least five communities signed local NDAs, keeping the public in the dark about data center proposals for months.
The newly released state agency NDAs show that in some cases, the proposals were hidden from view even longer. Also, three of the NDAs signed by the state agency are for projects proposed in communities that didn’t have a local secrecy pact.
The agreements, provided to Wisconsin Watch under the state public records law, show the gap in time between when the WEDC NDAs were signed and when the data center proposals were publicly announced:
Menomonie — 23 months: The August 2023 NDA, signed with a shell company called Balloonist LLC, was done 23 months before the city announced the data center proposal, which is pending.
Beaver Dam — 19 months: The NDA for the Meta data center now under construction in Beaver Dam, also signed in August 2023 by Balloonist, was done 19 months before the project was announced to the public.
DeForest — 8 months: The NDA was signed in February 2025 with QTS Data Centers, eight months before the public announcement of the proposal, which was later dropped.
Mount Pleasant — 2 months: Microsoft’s NDA was signed in January 2023, two months before the village announced the proposed data center complex that is now under construction.
Port Washington: The July 2025 NDAssigned for the OpenAI/Oracle/Vantage project under construction were done six months after the city announced the proposal.
WEDC replied to an interview request with a statement saying “the agency is committed to transparency and compliance with Wisconsin’s public records laws and has long been recognized for its strong commitment to reporting.”
“Wisconsin law recognizes that certain information related to pending economic development projects may need to remain confidential to protect their competitive nature,” the agency said. “NDAs are one tool used to facilitate the exchange of business information while companies evaluate potential investments, expansions, or relocations in Wisconsin. These agreements help Wisconsin compete for economic opportunities while remaining consistent with applicable public records laws.”
Told about WEDC’s use of NDAs, state Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, said he would add the state agency to legislation banning data center NDAs that he plans to introduce in January, after a new governor and Legislature take office.
His original bill, introduced in January but given no hearings, would have applied only to local governments.
“I would assume they wouldn’t like it,” Moses said of the WEDC. “I know certain groups … kind of frown on any time you start banning NDAs. But these data centers are such a big issue, and there’s so much unknown about them still, that we need to be doing something.
“I think regardless who the governor is and who has control of the Legislature, I think it’s popular,” Moses added. “I think it will get support, regardless.”
Behind the WEDC and confidentiality
WEDC is the state’s lead economic development agency. It aims to attract new businesses to the state by allocating tax credits, awarding grants and loans and authorizing local governments to issue bonds.
The state law that created WEDC in 2011 says agency records are open to the public — except for “pending grants, loans, or economic development projects that, in the opinion of the corporation, must remain confidential to protect the competitive nature of the grant, loan, or project.”
That means proposed data centers costing billions of dollars and covering hundreds of acres could be quietly explored long before local residents are informed.
“It just seems like really bad practice,” said Port Washington Ald. Michael Beaster, who opposed his community’s data center and made public records requests about it before being elected in April. “A state agency is not accountable to the local government.”
The NDA record requests
Wisconsin Watch sought to obtain all NDAs signed by WEDC for hyperscale data center proposals. However, the agency was unable to produce all NDAs in its records in response to a general public records request for them.
The agency initially provided NDAs for three data centers that it certified for a state sales tax exemption and are under construction — Microsoft’s in Mount Pleasant, Meta’s in Beaver Dam and OpenAI/Oracle/Vantage’s in Port Washington.
Mount Pleasant and Port Washington replied to previous public records requests from Wisconsin Watch saying they did not sign NDAs for their data centers. The Beaver Dam Area Development Corp., a quasi-government group, signed an NDA for the Beaver Dam data center.
Wisconsin Watch then followed up with a request for any NDAs that WEDC signed with at least 16 companies that Wisconsin Watch identified as making data center proposals in the state. That prompted WEDC to provide its Menomonie and DeForest NDAs.
No data center NDAs were turned up by public records requests Wisconsin Watch made to the state’s nine regional economic development agencies.
Six of the regional agencies said the public records law doesn’t apply to them. But three of those six, plus three others, said they had no such NDAs.
NDAs helped usher in massive economic development
The NDAs helped pave the way for multibillion-dollar developments, but also public backlash.
Microsoft’s plans have grown to $20 billion worth of data centers in Mount Pleasant, south of Milwaukee in Racine County. The OpenAI/Oracle/Vantage project is worth $15 billion in Port Washington, north of Milwaukee in Ozaukee County. Meta’s data center investment is $1 billion in Beaver Dam, 40 miles north of Madison in Dodge County.
Data centers have also been worth billions of dollars to Wisconsin businesses that serve them. Earlier this year, just three Wisconsin companies had already done more than $1 billion in data center business, Wisconsin Watch reported.
“Non-disclosure agreements are an essential part of doing business in a competitive economic development climate,” the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce said in a statement to Wisconsin Watch. “Companies considering major investments don’t evaluate locations singularly. They compare us with communities across the country, and they expect legitimate trade secrets and proprietary business information to remain confidential while making those decisions. If we make it harder to protect that information, we put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage and risk losing that investment altogether. That means a loss of jobs, tax base and economic momentum. To our knowledge, not a single state prohibits its economic development arm from utilizing NDAs.”
A Microsoft data center, named “Fairwater,” is under construction in Mount Pleasant, Wis. The Foxconn High Performance Computing Data Center Globe can be seen in the background. The Microsoft project was subject to a nondisclosure agreement between the developer and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. two months before it was publicly announced. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
Another measure of data centers’ impact is the sales tax exemption, part of the 2023-25 state budget. It means that generally, data centers certified by the WEDC, including the three facilities under construction, don’t have to pay sales taxes on construction materials, computer servers and other equipment. The exemption is estimated to be worth more than $2 billion and has been targeted by Democrats and Republicans for modification or elimination.
The $1.6 billion data center proposal in Menomonie in western Wisconsin, where $25 million in land has already been purchased, was paused in September 2025 after local opposition mounted. The city is still drafting zoning regulations. The city signed an NDA in February 2024, six months after the WEDC secrecy agreement.
QTS had planned to spend $12 billion on a data center in the Madison suburb of DeForest. The village, which said it did not sign an NDA, reached a wide-ranging community benefits agreement with QTS, but village officials dropped the plan over local opposition. Wisconsin Watch obtained records showing village officials were in talks with QTS around the same time WEDC signed a nondisclosure agreement and months before village officials initially told the public they were aware of the project.
At least two Wisconsin communities have restricted data center NDAs. The Columbia County Board prohibited its members from signing data center NDAs. The Beloit Town Board barred town board employees from signing them without board approval.
Both candidates for governor in the Nov. 3 election, Democrat David Crowley and Republican Tom Tiffany, have expressed support for banning data center NDAs.
More data centers being considered
Data center proposals that are pending include one for a former paper mill in Wisconsin Rapids, north of Madison, where a decisive city council vote could come this month. The city said it did not sign an NDA.
In Kenosha, which signed an NDA in May 2024, residents are seeking a data center moratorium as the city considers a data center plan from Microsoft. The technology giant terminated the local NDA in June 2026.
That stemmed from Microsoft’s announcement three months earlier that it would no longer sign data center NDAs with local governments and would seek to terminate the ones it had signed, calling it an effort to build trust.
The announcement didn’t mention state-level NDAs. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment on state NDAs.
“We continue to hear these data centers and tech companies talking about wanting to be a good neighbor,” said Beaver Dam data center opponent Maily Kocinski. “This is not something a good neighbor does.”
Disclosure: The OpenAI Foundation recently awarded agrantto Wisconsin Watch but has no control over its editorial decisions. We will update our funding page to reflect the grant. A list of donors and funders through 2025, as well as our donation acceptance policies, can be foundhere.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
Wisconsin clerks can count ballots that are in a municipality’s possession by 8 p.m. on Election Day but don’t arrive at polling places until after that time because of election official errors, a Dane County judge ruled Tuesday.
The decision comes months after Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell first ruled that Madison was correct to count 23 ballots that the city had in its possession before Election Day in April but didn’t reach the polls until after the 8 p.m. deadline, a delay city officials say was caused by election administrator error.
“Where a qualified elector has complied with every statutory requirement, and the ballot was in the custody of the municipal clerk in time for delivery to the polling place, the failure of election officials to deliver it by 8:00 p.m. is not a lawful ground for rejecting the ballot,” Mitchell said in his Tuesday order.
Wisconsin law says that ballots must be “delivered to the polling place no later than 8 p.m.” on Election Day.
A lawsuit was filed by Margaret and Robert Honig, two of the 23 voters whose ballots in the state’s April Supreme Court race were delayed and whose ballots the Wisconsin Elections Commission ordered not to be counted before Mitchell reversed the agency’s decision in May. It alleges that discounting properly cast votes over election officials’ errors would deprive voters of their constitutional voting rights.
The commission argued that a plain reading of Wisconsin law states that ballots arriving after 8 p.m. may not be counted. Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell disagreed, saying that state law can’t be reasonably interpreted to punish voters over election officials’ mistakes.
Ann Jacobs, a Democratic appointee on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said she was delighted by the Tuesday decision.
“The errors of the clerk should not be visited upon innocent voters,” she said. “This is the right outcome.”
Wisconsin Elections Commission chair Don Millis, a Republican, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mitchell clarified that the decision doesn’t extend deadlines for voters who return ballots late, nor does it allow officials to count late-arriving ballots if the voter was even partially responsible for the late arrival.
“Today’s decision is a cause for celebration, a major victory for voting rights in Wisconsin,” said Law Forward staff counsel Scott Thompson, who represents the Madison voters in the case.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
In a governor’s race that has focused more on data center construction than artificial intelligence technology, Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley on Tuesday announced a plan for state regulations on AI aimed at protecting vulnerable Wisconsinites.
In an 11-point plan shared with Wisconsin Watch, Crowley calls for guardrails on AI offerings for minors and holding technology companies responsible for scams and fraud on their platforms. Some key components of the plan include:
Limiting access to AI chatbot apps for children under 13.
Prohibiting addictive design features, such as infinite scrolling and autoplay, on accounts of minors.
Increasing penalties for circulating AI-generated sexual images of minors.
Allowing families to sue AI platforms if their content harms children, such as by promoting suicide or eating disorders.
Penalizing technology companies that profit from scams or fraudulent ads.
More funding for adult protective services and resource centers that can help victims of scams or fraud.
Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, is running for governor against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in what polling from Marquette University Law School shows could be another close governor’s race in Wisconsin. AI policy debates between the two candidates in the months since the August primary have mostly been focused on the planning and construction of AI data centers, rather than the technology itself.
In a statement, Tiffany also said Wisconsin needs “commonsense guardrails” to protect children and older adults, including holding companies accountable for platforms that allow creation of sexually explicit images or engage minors in inappropriate chatbot conversations. Tiffany said he also wants to prevent personal data from “falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, including Communist China.”
“As governor, I will also support commonsense age-verification requirements for app providers, strengthen parental-consent protections, and give parents greater control over their children’s online activity,” Tiffany said.
Crowley’s proposed state-level AI regulations land as President Donald Trump has dismissed calls for guardrails and warnings from technology company leaders asking for government oversight as their platforms become more advanced.
Trump in May 2025 signed the Take it Down Act, which criminalized the online publication of real and AI-generated intimate images and requires social media platforms to remove them once notified of their existence. Tiffany, and the rest of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, voted for the bill in 2025.
Other proposed federal legislation has not advanced, including bills requiring public reporting of safety incidents by AI companies and requiring labels on any AI-generated content. Crowley in a statement said he would not “wait around for DC to act” on additional AI regulations if he is elected.
“Like so many parents, Ericka and I are raising our three girls in the age of social media and AI, and we’re navigating things no generation before us has ever had to, worrying about whether a stranger is messaging our kids, or a fake picture of our daughter is going around school, or even scammers trying to drain a grandparent’s life savings,” Crowley said.
The proposals in Crowley’s regulatory plan would require state legislative action. They echo recent bipartisan efforts signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers, including a series of bills that classified sextortion as a crime and provided additional recourse for victims and their families.
Additionally, Attorney General Josh Kaul in August announced Wisconsin could receive up to $313 million in a settlement social media company Meta made with 47 states in a case that alleged addictive components of its platforms threatened teens’ mental health.
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At a brewery in Mauston, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley took a question from rural Democrats about what led to his exit and reentry in the chaotic Democratic gubernatorial primary this summer. At a biergarten in Germantown, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany answered a guest at a picnic table who asked how his property tax plan might help young people purchase a home.
As Crowley and Tiffany sprint toward Election Day on Nov. 3, they are crisscrossing the state to get in front of potential voters and make their case to be the state’s next governor in a high-stakes election that could determine future political control of the Capitol in Madison. The latest polling from the Marquette University Law School indicates it’s shaping up to be another close gubernatorial contest in Wisconsin.
Voters are already casting their absentee ballots, and early in-person voting begins Oct. 20. Wisconsinites can watch the candidates participate in the race’s lone televised debate on Oct. 21, but few voters across the state may get the chance to ask Crowley and Tiffany questions about issues that matter in their communities.
In August, Wisconsin Watch asked readers to send us their questions for candidates running for office in 2026. We caught up with Crowley and Tiffany at their campaign events to pose several of those questions.
Their answers show two very different approaches, with occasional overlap, to issues they may face if they are elected governor in November. We also provided additional context when appropriate. After reading this, find out more about the candidates in our voter guide.
Reader question: What would your administration do to help fund volunteer fire departments?
More context
Results of a surveyconducted by the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health and published in June 2025 showed that about a third of fire chiefs said they could not cover their annual costs due to the financial status of their departments. The survey also found many fire departments do not have enough firefighters to staff their trucks.
David Crowley: “I think that’s a very good question. It’s also one of the reasons why I worked to get Act 12 passed and across the finish line because we know how important this type of funding is for communities all across the state, and so we need to step up. We need the state to step up as it relates to shared revenue to make sure that EMS, our firefighters, are getting the support that they need. And I want to continue that work that we started with Act 12 when I become governor.”
More context
In 2023, Gov. Tony Evers worked with the GOP Legislature to passAct 12, which changedthe way local governments receive state funding. The law also provided the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County the power to implement new sales taxes, which both governments did later that year. Crowley has highlighted his efforts to pass the legislation on the campaign trail as an example of his ability to work across the political aisle to help Milwaukee County’s struggling financial position stemming from pension costs. Tiffany’s campaign has cited the sales tax increase to suggest Crowley would raise taxes as governor.
Tom Tiffany: “We’re going to review the volunteer fire department programs that are out there because what I’ve heard from local officials is that they’ve made the requirements so onerous now they’re keeping young people from going through the process to get certified. So, like the training hours have basically doubled, and so we’re going to review that because what it’s doing is it’s reducing the number of people that want to go through the process to become a volunteer fireman. And so I always put it this way that the perfect is becoming the enemy of the good. And I understand they want to set really high standards, but let’s make sure we have good standards but we’re not, they should not be excessive.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, greets a guest at a meeting of the Juneau County Democrats at Gravity Box Brewing in Mauston, Wis., on Oct. 1, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: How will you bring native nations to the table in your administration? Have you met with any of the native nations as you’ve been campaigning?
Crowley: “I know that our state has a long history and a long relationship with our native nations and our tribes all across Wisconsin, and as governor, I want to continue to build that relationship and continue that track record. I think it’s extremely important that you know both our governments sit down to actually figure out how we can help one another moving forward. You know, we just have a duty to do that because these are the lands that they lived in way before our government was actually here, and so I want to make sure that we are committed to building that future together.
I’ve met with a few of the different nations, and actually between now and Election Day, I know that we’re going to be heading up north to visit some of their land as well.”
Tiffany: “I would work with the tribes. I mean, the governor has a responsibility to do that, and I’ll sit down with the tribes both collectively and individually if they choose to, and hear what their concerns are. I’ll share what my concerns are, and we’ll just have good dialogue.
I’ve talked to some of tribal leadership here and there. I’ve had some discussions with them. I would say that I will definitely be sitting down with the Lac du Flambeau in regards to their road closures, because having dealt with that issue federally, and the judges ruled that that’s illegal to do that, I’m hoping we can come to a resolution where we don’t have this disagreement that’s going on, where they’re closing roads illegally.”
More context
An August 2025federal court rulingfound that the Lac du Flambeau Band of the Chippewa Indians could not block public access to roads going through tribal lands after a dispute about expired easements. Tiffany, ina letter later that month, asked former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate and recover $600,000 the town of Lac du Flambeau paid the tribe during the conflict, describing the tribe’s actions as an “illegal shakedown.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee for governor, speaks to guests at the Von Rothenburg Bier Stube in Germantown, Wis., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: What policies would you enact to protect Wisconsin from droughts, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes?
Crowley: “The changing of climate is real and you have to follow the science and the data to make sure that we are pivoting the way that we need to to make sure that we’re protecting our land, protecting our water, protecting our air. But I also know that the state of Wisconsin has a 2050 climate action plan as well, but it doesn’t have any teeth or levels of accountability to it. I want to make sure that it’s a plan that we can actually implement and where the community can actually hold us accountable in making sure that we’re addressing climate change in Wisconsin.
The other things that we can do is as we look to the future, how do you build for more resilience, right? How do you build thinking about things, for example, the flooding, right? We’ve seen that here within Milwaukee County within the past couple of years, but it doesn’t just affect urban areas. It also affects farmers, affects our rural communities and affects their crops. So it’s about making sure that we’re building with more resilience because we see more extreme weather patterns.”
Tiffany: “The important thing that needs to be done is, I mean, we’ll make sure that our disaster aid program is fully prepared. I mean, I’ll make sure … that they’re fully prepared for any disasters that may happen in Wisconsin. I think that’s the most important thing that we can do is simply be prepared when they do happen, whether it’s flooding or whatever.
The other thing is that I’m going to make sure that I have a good line of communication with the White House in regards to this. In case you have a situation like in New London this year, where they had the flooding, and we sent letters to the administration asking them to designate it a federal disaster area, and the administration said yes, we’re going to do that. I think it’s important to have good communication there. And this is one place where I think David Crowley is really making a mistake when he says, almost every time he does an interview, and he’s speaking about me, he says ‘Donald Trump, MAGA, all the rest,’ and he’s basically just saying ‘I’m against everything that Donald Trump stands for.’ Well, you’ve got to work with the White House occasionally when you’re the governor.”
More context
While the Trump administration has approved some disaster declarations for recent storms in Wisconsin, it has also denied some of the state’s requests. For severe rain and flooding in August 2025, individual assistance for Milwaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties was approved but public assistance grantswere denied. The administration approved both individual and public assistance for several counties after severe flooding in April 2026, butit deniedstatewide hazard mitigation grants and public assistance for Bayfield, Manitowoc, Marathon and Racine counties. After an appeal, Racine County was later approved for public assistance. Ina social media poston Oct. 7, President Donald Trump said he spoke to Tiffany and would approve $17.9 million for Wisconsin’s “severe storms and tornadoes.” Evers formally requested disaster assistancein Augustfor the storms andtornado that hit the Fox Valley in July.
Reader question: Are there any rights thattransgender childrenand adults have currently that you would seek to limit, such as access to gender-affirming care?
Crowley: “No, I am not going to limit our LGBTQ community from what they currently have. We have a job in making sure that we protect our LGBTQ community, that we protect all children in this state, to where they can live and be their healthy selves, no matter where they are. And so, you know, I’m always going to be an accomplice when it comes down to the LGBTQ community and making sure that we’re protecting their rights and their ability to live healthy lives in Wisconsin.”
Tiffany: “I would say two things in regards to that. So first of all, public money should not be used for that, including for adults, and it should not happen to minors. I mean, puberty is a very delicate time of life. It’s a time of confusion for young people, and to say to them, to say that we’re going to allow these sexual, what I call, mutilations, to happen, I think is just wrong when they’re minors, and just because it’s a time of great uncertainty, we should let them work their way through it. And then, as adults, if they choose a different path, then you know that’s up to them as adults. But we should not be doing that as minors. And I would restrict that funding for medical facilities that are offering those surgeries to minors, we would restrict those dollars from going to them.”
More context
Over the course of his two terms as governor, Evers vetoed several Republican bills that focused on medical procedures, names and pronouns of transgender Wisconsinites. In March, Evers vetoed five Republican bills that included:
A ban on transgender children and college-age individuals from playing in school sports teams that matched their gender identity.
Prohibiting school districts from changing a student’s name or pronouns without parental consent.
Prohibiting health care providers from providing gender-affirming care for minors in Wisconsin and allowing lawsuits against medical professionals that do so.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, speaks to guests at a meeting of the Juneau County Democrats at Gravity Box Brewing in Mauston, Wis., on Oct. 1, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: Do you envision any reforms to the current campaign finance system that gives political parties the ability to raise unlimited funding for candidates?
Crowley: “What I’ve realized running for governor is that you spend a lot of time fundraising. Unfortunately, Tom Tiffany has not because he has three billionaire backers, and it takes us away from actually talking to as many voters as possible. And when you think about how much money that we see going into supporting candidates all across this country, when you think about the $24 million that is backing Congressman Tom Tiffany from three billionaire donors, imagine how much more we could afford child care, how much we can help health care stretch across this state, how we can start fully funding our public schools. So yes, we absolutely need campaign finance reform in the state of Wisconsin.
I want to make sure that no one can buy this election. The fact that any political party can receive unlimited amounts of funds and donate that to one particular candidate, that’s insane to me. And so we need to make sure that government continues to stay in the hands of the people, and not in the hands of the ultra wealthy.”
More context
Recent campaign finance reports from July 1 through Sept. 23 show Tiffany’s largest donor is the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which received nearly 95% of its $29 million in donations from GOP megadonors Diane Hendricks, the founder of ABC Supply Co., and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who founded the Uline shipping supplies company. Crowley’s largest donor in the same time period is the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, whose largest donors include Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Lynde Uihlein, a cousin of Richard Uihlein, who each gave $1 million.
Tiffany: “I would work with the Legislature in regards to that and see if they want to make some changes. I think it’s going to take a bipartisan effort in order to be able to do that, and so I would just work with the Legislature to see if they want to change that.
More context
In a December 2025 interview withPBS Wisconsin, Tiffany described the system of unlimited donations to political parties as a “billionaire loophole.” As a state senator, Tiffany voted for the2015 law, signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, that allowed unlimited donations to political parties.
“I do find it ironic that the Democrat Party is making a big deal out of this when they raised $50 million for the 2023 Supreme Court race, $48 million in the 2025 race, almost all of it out of state, including the governor of Illinois, and now they’re whining about it. I mean, to me, it’s really clear what’s going on. David Crowley is not exciting their base, and they’re having a hard time fundraising because what he’s proposing and just the basement campaign that he’s running, primarily between Milwaukee and Madison, is just not exciting voters around Wisconsin. So he’s having real difficulty being able to raise money.”
More context
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin donated about $9.9 million in 2023 to then-Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz’s campaign and about $11.8 million in 2025 to then-candidate Susan Crawford’s campaign.A majority of the donorsto Protasiewicz and Crawford’s campaigns did not live in Wisconsin. During those same races, the Republican Party of Wisconsin donated $900,000 to conservative former Justice Daniel Kelly in 2023 and $9.7 million to former Attorney General Brad Schimel in 2025.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee for governor, speaks to guests at the Von Rothenburg Bier Stube in Germantown, Wis., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: Do you support restoring local eminent domain for bike and pedestrian purposes?
More context
The 2017 state budget bill, which Tiffany voted for and Crowley voted against, prohibited the use of eminent domain for bicycle and pedestrian paths. The Wisconsin Bicycle Federation has supported bringing back those powers for local governments.
Crowley: “I believe in local control and I think that this is basically what it goes down to. I think that local communities should be able to have a say-so on what they want to be able to do, you know, with the properties that are within their communities. And so, to say whether or not I support it for a particular project, I support anything that gives local municipalities a greater say-so at the table, at the decision-making table.”
Tiffany: “I think eminent domain should very rarely be used, and if it’s oftentimes that would be going over. I remember the example when I was in the Legislature. It was in St. Croix County, and they wanted to do it over farmland. I am very opposed, whether it’s bike trails or wind and solar, I am very opposed to converting our farmland. It is one of the cornerstones of our economy, and we have got to stop destroying our farmland. So I think eminent domain should be used very, very rarely, just very rarely.”
Reader question: What’s your position on marijuana legalization and why? What are your concerns if you do not support recreational legalization?
Crowley: “I believe it should be legalized, and I think that it needs to be legalized. One, you know, we don’t have the same opportunities as folks in Minnesota and in Michigan and in Illinois. I believe that we should support it, one, because this is a personal health position for those who want to utilize it as an alternative to a prescription drug I think is extremely important. But I also look at it as an opportunity, right? Being able to grow our economy here locally, but also finding a new revenue stream to invest in things like public safety, public education and child care.”
Tiffany: “I think you take a go-slow approach because we’ve seen some states that went straight to it, like I think about Colorado, and they had some real problems as a result of that. Think about Oregon, where they adopted full legalization, but then they also legalized other hard drugs. They had to pull back, and so I think those are a lesson to other states that we should take this go-slow approach. Also, I’ve voted federally for more money to go into research, and I think that research can inform states about what’s the best approach to take in regards to legalization.”
More context
Tiffany’scampaign websitesays the congressman supports legalizing medical marijuana and establishing a “responsible program” that would help veterans and patients access treatments while also establishing strict age requirements to prevent marijuana from getting in the hands of children.
Reader question: Do you support the BECI and MariBell electric transmission line projects? Will you intervene if they decide to skip public utility corridors and route them through private land?
More context
Two 765 kV transmission line projects are proposed in southwestern Wisconsin, which energy companies say would help meet energy demands and opposition groups say would threaten land and life in the Driftless region. The BECI would run from Crawford County to Walworth County and then to the Wisconsin-Illinois border. The MariBell would run between Marion, Minnesota, and Bell Center, Wisconsin. It will be up to thestate’s Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, whether the projects get approved for construction.
Crowley: “No, I do not support them in its current form, and that’s because it is literally going through many different private properties and agricultural land that could be utilized, and it’s unfortunate. What’s really unfortunate is that they did not pass. ROFR would have utilized existing right of ways instead of creating new pathways, you know, for these lines that’s going to basically power these data centers. And so I want people to recognize and know that this shouldn’t be happening and the only reason why it’s happening is because the Republican-controlled Senate, particularly, didn’t pass the law to utilize the existing right of ways. We want, I want to preserve our beautiful areas. When I think about the Driftless region, I want to make sure that people can continue to have the types of views and in the agricultural lands that they need to produce the products that they harvest. And so, in its current form, I absolutely oppose this line.”
More context
ROFR, or right of first refusal, legislation that would allow in-state utility companies to have first dibs on transmission line construction has often failed in the Wisconsin Legislature, including the recent 2025-26 session.
“I’m not sure of everything related to what the governor’s power is related to this. But as you can imagine, it all depends on when this gets approved, right? Because if it gets approved before you know anybody is sworn in, you know that that pretty much handcuffs anybody’s ability to do anything moving forward. But I want your readers to know that you know they have a friend in me. They can call me their Randy Newman, in a sense, because I’m going to make sure that we’re fighting on their behalf as it relates to these power lines.”
Tiffany: “I oppose this because we’ve been seeing this across the state of Wisconsin. So first of all, just having a farm background has really given me a sense of what is happening because if we destroy our farmland, one of the most important things we do is grow food, and we’re going to, as we convert this farmland, thousands of acres of it, we’re going to drive food prices up eventually as a result of that. But there’s also the increase in energy prices. The last eight years, over $2 billion worth of rate increases here in Wisconsin, and I think one of the utilities just asked for another 14% increase, so it’s clear they’re going to continue to skyrocket our utility rates here if we continue this conversion, but to bring in something like this line, which is unique to Wisconsin, that we’re not very familiar with. I think there needs to be a timeout here and reassess where we’re going as a state.”
More context
A review of Public Service Commission-approved rate increases from 2021 to 2025 byWisPolitics.comfound that Evers’ PSC commissioners approved $2.2 billion out of more than $3.1 billion in rate increases sought by utilities.
“I think the key thing is to be able to get PSC members that are going to respect private property. They’re going to make sure that we’re not using eminent domain, and that we’re seeking low-cost, affordable, reliable energy sources rather than the high-cost sources of energy.”
Sauk County Board Chair Tim McCumber speaks to guests at a town hall about the 765 transmission line at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., on Sept. 18, 2026. The event was organized by No 765 Line, Inc., an organization concerned about the proposed MariBell and BECI transmission lines proposed across southern Wisconsin. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: Do you support the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program? What changes would you want to see to the program?
More context
The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, which was created in 1989 to preserve green space and wetlands across the state, expired on July 1 after the Legislaturefailed to reauthorize the program.
Crowley: “The Knowles Nelson Fund, we’ve never seen this become a political issue until, you know, within the past year and a half, two years. This has always been a bipartisan issue, and I want to make sure that we’re fully funding the entire program, especially when you see Donald Trump and Tom Tiffany stripping safeguards at the federal level that keeps our water and air clean.”
Tiffany: “I support renewal of the stewardship program, and the primary change that I want to make is to make sure that we’re maintaining existing state properties appropriately. I always use the example of someone who has a home, they got a hole in their roof, and their neighbor’s house comes for sale. Do you buy that house or do you fix your roof? And I see that happening with some of our state properties where they’re in disrepair. We need to make sure the roads and the buildings, the outhouses and all the rest. We’ve got to make sure that parking lots, we got to make sure that stuff is all in good repair, so people can enjoy their experience at the existing state properties. So let’s make sure we maintain what we have first before we buy anything else.”
Reader question: How will you protect and ensure the quality of Medicaid-funded home- and community-based services (like Family Care and IRIS programs) for older adults and people with disabilities?
Crowley: “That’s extremely important to me. You know, when I think about our seniors, people with disabilities, we’re talking about the most vulnerable populations, like here within the state of Wisconsin, and we’re going to make sure that they continue to get the direct services that they need. And when we talk about expanding BadgerCare, I mean, this is about actually allowing people to pay into a system to make sure we can keep it sustainable moving forward, and so I’m excited about the opportunities. But we know that we have a long road to go. My job is to focus on how we win in November to make sure that we can provide that relief, those health care services that so many families rely on each and every single day.”
Tiffany: “Part of it’s going to be the audit that I talked about. Part of it’s going to be the auditing. So the auditing, we’re seeking to first of all eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse, but just as importantly, we want to make sure that people get quality care. We’re generous here in Wisconsin in helping people who are in need, and we should make sure they’re getting the best care possible. I would add, just generally in regards to health care, we’re going to have a transparency part to our budget that health care costs have to be fully transparent. Our health care providers have to do that. We’ve seen with the study out of UW-Madison that our health care expenses are 26% higher than Illinois. We should not be worse than Illinois in anything, and so it’s certainly something that needs to be dealt with.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
Wisconsin’s Nov. 3 midterm election is less than a month away, and absentee voting is already happening.
Voters will choose a governor, members of Congress and the state Legislature, statewide officials and local candidates, while also deciding three proposed constitutional amendments.
Whether you plan to vote early in person, by mail or on Election Day, here’s everything you need to know about how to make your voice heard in November.
When is Wisconsin’s midterm election?
Election Day across the nation and in Wisconsin is Nov. 3, and polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.
You can also vote early in person beginning as soon as Oct. 20, depending on your jurisdiction.
What offices are on the ballot?
The governor’s office is up for grabs, along with every Wisconsin Assembly and U.S. House district in the state, 17 state Senate seats, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, plenty of local offices and three constitutional amendments.
Any registered voter can cast a vote in the November election. You can click here to find out whether you’re registered.
What if I’m not registered to vote yet? Is it too late?
You still have time.
The deadline to register online or by mail is Oct. 14. After that, you can register at your local clerk’s office or at an early voting location through Friday, Oct. 30.
If you miss that window, you can also register at your polling place on Election Day.
Where is my polling place?
Click here to find your polling place. On Nov. 3, you must vote at the polling place assigned to your address. Your early voting location may be different.
Early voting schedules and locations vary by municipality, and you can contact your municipal clerk here to learn more. The League of Women Voters has also assembled a list of early voting sites in dozens of Wisconsin’s biggest municipalities.
What should I bring to vote?
If you’re already registered to vote, all you need to bring is an acceptable photo ID. That can include a driver’s license, passport, military identification card, a free Wisconsin ID issued for the purposes of voting, and several other options. Click here to view all acceptable IDs.
If you are registering to vote at the polling place, you’ll need to bring a proof of residence showing your name and current mailing address. That could include a Wisconsin driver’s license or other government ID, a residential lease or a utility bill.
How does early voting work?
In Wisconsin, early voting is technically in-person absentee voting. It allows you to cast an absentee ballot before Election Day at your municipal clerk’s office or another location designated by your municipality.
The availability of early voting varies widely across the state. Some clerks offer it only by appointment. Some cities, including Madison and Milwaukee, operate multiple early voting sites that are open several hours a day. But by law, early voting can’t be offered later than the Sunday before the Nov. 3 election. After that, you must vote on Election Day.
Once you arrive at an early voting site, you must first request an absentee ballot and show an acceptable photo ID. You can then mark your absentee ballot in private. Let an election official know if you require assistance.
Your ballot is sealed in an absentee envelope, which must be signed by the appropriate election official, and is kept until it is counted on Election Day.
Can I vote absentee by mail?
In Wisconsin, you can also request that an absentee ballot be sent to you by mail.
The deadline to request absentee ballots is Oct. 29 by 5 p.m. for regular and overseas voters, and Oct. 30 by 5 p.m. for indefinitely confined and military voters. For your absentee ballot to count, it must arrive back at the clerk’s office by Nov. 3 at 8 p.m.
Don’t request and return your ballot by mail last minute if you have any other options. Mail delays have recently led to hundreds of absentee ballots getting delivered too late to count. If Election Day is approaching, clerks recommend dropping your ballot off at your local election office, a drop box or an early voting location instead of mailing it.
What if I return my absentee ballot and then wish to change my vote?
Under current guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, you can’t void an absentee ballot after you return it to an election official. That guidance is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court, but spoiling remains prohibited in the meantime.
That means — at least for this election — that your absentee votes are final once your ballot is in the hands of election workers. If you make a mistake while casting the ballot, though, or spill something on it, you can request a replacement from an election official prior to submitting it.
Who should I contact if I have trouble voting or have any questions?
Wisconsin’s controversial 2011 law that severely restricted public employee unions, known as Act 10, is headed for a reckoning with the Nov. 3 election and the liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court poised to determine its future.
The law is one of many points of disagreement between the two candidates for governor. Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has defended the law, saying repeal would place more of a burden on taxpayers. Tiffany also voted for Act 10 while he was in the Legislature. His Democratic opponent Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has called for a repeal of Act 10.
However, a governor cannot repeal Act 10 alone. Whether its restrictions are rolled back would also depend on the party in power in the Legislature, adding additional stakes to the upcoming legislative elections as Democrats try to take control of the Senate and Assembly for the first time since 2010.
Democratic leader Sen. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, said Senate Democrats support restoring collective bargaining rights. The caucus is still discussing what it would do about public employee health insurance and pension contributions that increased under Act 10, Hesselbein said.
“Collective bargaining works,” Hesselbein said. “It works for the state of Wisconsin. I’ve seen it work for (Dane County) and I’m really looking forward to seeing it work for the state of Wisconsin again.”
Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, center, Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer, right, and Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler, left, launch a campaign to retake the state Legislature on Aug. 16, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
A lawsuit heading to the Supreme Court may also lead to major changes to the law. If the court upholds a 2024 Dane County Circuit Court decision that invalidated parts of the law, it could potentially overturn some restrictions on collective bargaining for public sector employees. The Court of Appeals overturned the circuit court ruling in July, setting up a Supreme Court showdown in the coming months.
The bill’s introduction in 2011 drew as many as 100,000 protesters to the state Capitol and sparked an unsuccessful attempt to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker. A conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the law in 2014. But Democrats have helped elect five of the Supreme Court’s seven justices. They also have held the governor’s office since 2018, though have yet to hold both chambers of the Legislature.
Public opinion on Act 10 remains divided along party lines. In an Aug. 26 Marquette Law School Poll conducted after the Aug. 11 primary election, 54% of Wisconsin registered voters said they wanted collective bargaining for public employees restored to what it was prior to Act 10 while 43% said they want to keep the law as is.
The divide was especially evident among political parties, with 84% of Democrats favoring the restoration of collective bargaining while 65% of Republicans opposed a repeal. Independents were more closely split, with 50% supporting the law and 46% favoring repeal.
Nonpartisan experts say the effects of a repeal would depend heavily on the specific provisions lawmakers change, how court cases interpret it and how employees and employers respond after a repeal.
What Act 10 changed
In 1959, Wisconsin became the first state to formally authorize public sector employees to bargain with their employers. More than 50 years later, Act 10 significantly reduced those rights, changing how public employees negotiate their wages, contracts and other working conditions.
Act 10 largely eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees and required public workers to contribute more toward their pensions and health insurance. It also put stricter certification requirements on unions, making it more difficult for them to remain certified.
The changes did not apply to public safety unions representing police and firefighters, which is one of the key issues being raised in the latest court challenge.
Before Act 10, public employees could bargain over wages, vacation days, pensions, mandatory breaks, promotions, contracts and other work-related issues.
Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said local governments, state agencies and school districts were required to sit down and bargain with unions over these subjects. If disputes arose, they would go to arbitration and mediation. Act 10 significantly changed that process.
“There were these very real obligations that the state had to, and the local governments had to interact with these unions,” Stein said. “Now that’s — for many public employers — that’s not the case.”
He added that government bodies can now unilaterally adjust health care benefits, giving local government employers an “upper hand” in changing some working conditions.
After Gov. Scott Walker unveiled the Wisconsin budget repair bill in February 2011, which sought to end collective bargaining for most public sector unions, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Madison in opposition. Protesters are seen here in front of the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 12, 2011, a day after the bill was passed. (Richard Hurd via Flickr, license: CC BY 2.0)
Act 10 also required unions to hold recertification elections every year. To recertify, unions had to receive a majority vote from all members, including those who did not vote.
Stein noted that contrasts with most democratic elections, where a candidate needs a majority of the people who actually show up to vote. Under Act 10’s union recertification requirement, however, nonvoters are counted as “no” votes.
Stein said that made it difficult for unions to pass the annual recertification votes, causing many local unions to disband. He also noted that the only permitted subject of collective bargaining under Act 10 is a base wage increase up to the rate of inflation, diminishing the value of union membership.
“So, it was tough to recertify your union to be the official bargaining voice for the employees, and then if you did that, there wasn’t a lot that the union could actually bargain for,” Stein said. “As a result of that, many unions didn’t even try to recertify; they just disbanded.”
Wisconsin’s public sector union membership rate fell by nearly 29 percentage points between 1985 and 2025 — the largest percentage decline of any state, according to a report from the Center for Economics and Policy Research. The report shows a significant drop coinciding with Act 10’s passage in 2011, with the public union membership rate falling from 46.6% in 2010 to 18.5% in 2025.
Stein said school districts have been the biggest exception, with many school district unions able to recertify and continue bargaining, but they’re still only able to bargain over base wage increases up to the rate of inflation.
What could a repeal mean for public sector employees?
If Act 10 were repealed or struck down by the court, established unions could regain the ability to bargain over contracts and other agreements. However, unions whose certification or organizational structure lapsed under Act 10 could face a more complicated process.
Michael Childers, a University of Wisconsin-Madison School for Workers professor, said already certified unions would be able to bargain immediately while other unions would need to reorganize.
He noted that both unions and human resources staff involved in bargaining would need time to recertify and prepare for the resurgence of collective bargaining.
“There’s going to be a huge gap, even for these unions who’ve been recertified, in terms of they don’t really have any bargaining experience or expertise per se, because nobody has done this for going on 15 years,” Childers said.
A repeal of Act 10 would not immediately result in higher pay or benefits for public employees.
If they did vote to form a union, they would then have to negotiate changes to their desired benefits, pay or other working conditions. Stein said any financial impact would also take time to develop and it would vary across the state.
What could a repeal mean for schools, local governments and taxpayers?
Republicans have raised concerns that a full repeal of Act 10 could increase costs for Wisconsin taxpayers because the law made major changes to health care and pension contributions. The bargaining process itself would also cost public bodies more time and money.
Tiffany emphasized the new costs that would be presented to local governments and school districts with a full repeal, estimating a $2 billion increase in taxes each year — an estimate stemming from a study by the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
“(Local governments and school districts) would be forced to make devastating cuts or come back to taxpayers for more money,” Tiffany said in a statement. “Families are already dealing with higher property taxes, utility bills, and everyday costs. They cannot afford another massive tax increase.”
Crowley said he would work with the Legislature, unions and public employers, including school districts and local governments, to come up with a clear cost estimate for repealing Act 10. He disputed that there would be an immediate cost to taxpayers.
“Restoring bargaining rights does not mean every employee automatically stops contributing toward retirement or healthcare,” Crowley said in a statement. “How that works would depend on negotiated agreements.”
Act 10 shifted a greater share of pension costs onto public employees. Before the law, employers covered more than 99% of contributions to the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). By 2020, employers covered about half, with employees paying the remainder — similar to private employers who match 401(k) contributions.
A Wisconsin Policy Forum analysis estimated that the increased employee pension contributions reduced state and local government costs by nearly $5.2 billion from 2011 to 2017. The estimate included only changes to pension contributions, not other provisions of Act 10, like increased employee contributions to health insurance premiums.
A repeal would not necessarily mean those costs immediately return to the levels they were at before Act 10, and the financial impact would depend largely on how the law is repealed and what provisions are restored.
Tyler Byrnes, senior research associate with the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said those costs would have to be negotiated. He said there could be increased costs for local governments and school districts because employees and employers would once again be able to negotiate over those issues.
Byrnes said it’s important to note that school funding is controlled by per pupil revenue limits and school funding formulas. Local government funding is also controlled by “relatively strict” levy limits.
“While repealing those required contributions would give the employers and the employees something more to negotiate over, they’re still subject to how much revenue the local government has,” Byrnes said.
Municipalities are limited in how much they can spend based on how much revenue they have. Byrnes said it’s difficult to project exactly how costs would change, but if those limits remain in place, he said it’s unlikely there would be a massive increase in taxpayer costs immediately after a repeal.
“Over time, that impact may increase. But immediately, it’s going to be difficult to start spending a ton more for a school district on employee benefits if you just don’t have the revenue,” Byrnes said.
Hesselbein said if Democrats win the majority they would want to study the school funding formula with bipartisan input before making major changes.
Why Act 10 was passed
Byrnes said health care costs for government and private businesses were rising significantly before Act 10. He described how revenue could grow, but rising health care costs for existing employees could “eat up” that new revenue, creating a desire to address those costs.
He said there was also a desire to address pension costs. The state’s retirement system has been well funded, but some local governments didn’t have well-funded pensions.
“This combination of pension costs and health care costs were really making it difficult to cover the cost of local government, and there was sort of a desire to address those,” Byrnes said.
He also said some believed public employee unions had become too powerful. Union-affiliated organizations had spent heavily on Democratic candidates and liberal Supreme Court justices in the years leading up to Act 10.
Act 10 shifted more health care and pension costs to public employees, eliminated automatic union dues and reduced union participation rates.
What unions are looking for from state government
Julius Shieh, communications specialist at SEIU Wisconsin — a union representing health care, property services and public school workers across the state — said that SEIU supports a full repeal of Act 10.
“All workers deserve the right to collective bargaining and a union, and our state should be protecting workers’ rights rather than attacking them,” Shieh said in a statement.
Registered nurse Tami Burns speaks during a May 2021 press conference calling on UW Health to recognize a nurses’ union. Around 2,500 nurses lost certification of their union in 2014 when their contract expired. Since then, UW Health has argued that Act 10 precludes the quasi-state health authority from signing a collective bargaining agreement with its workforce. (Courtesy of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin)
Jon Shelton, president of AFT-Wisconsin — a labor union representing members of the public K-12 system, state agencies, technical colleges and the Universities of Wisconsin system — said Act 10 had a significant impact on members because it limited public sector employees’ ability to negotiate salaries and working conditions.
“We’ve seen a lot of K-12 teachers, in particular, either leave the profession, or work multiple jobs, or end up even going to neighboring states where salaries are higher,” Shelton said. “It’s really diminished our education system in the state from top to bottom.”
He said he has also heard from workers about how the law affected the way they are treated in their workplaces.
“The biggest thing that I hear from workers across the state … is the lack of professional discretion — the way that workers have been cut out of the conversations,” Shelton said. “It’s been to the detriment of the education system. It’s harmed our students.”
He said the law has affected class sizes and student resources and has given administrators more control over which positions are filled. He also said seniority and experience can sometimes be disregarded.
“Having administrators who are nowhere near the classroom basically mandates which kinds of professional developments teachers and other professionals engage in often means that teachers don’t get the kind of training that they actually need to be able to effectively work with students,” Shelton said. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that student learning conditions have been significantly hampered by 15 years of Act 10.”
Shelton said AFT-Wisconsin believes public employees are entitled to full bargaining rights and expects the next governor and Legislature to restore those rights to public employees across Wisconsin. He said the organization would also want a larger conversation about pensions and health care contributions and wouldn’t expect those to immediately change.
The Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state’s largest teachers union and one of the leading organizers of the massive protests that rocked the Capitol in 2011 after Act 10 was introduced, declined to comment for this story.
Crowley has been endorsed by more than a dozen unions including SEIU Wisconsin, WEAC and AFT-Wisconsin. Tiffany has been endorsed by three public safety unions, including the Milwaukee and Kenosha police unions.
What happens next?
Any legislative changes to the law would likely require Democrats to take control of the Assembly, Senate and governor’s office. If the Supreme Court strikes down the law and Republicans control the Legislature and governor’s office, they could try to make changes to address any constitutional issues. Split control of government wouldn’t likely lead to legislative changes either way.
If Act 10 is repealed or overturned, it would not immediately change every public employee’s wages, benefits or other working conditions. In many cases, unions would first have to reorganize or recertify, and employers and employees would then have to negotiate new agreements.
At the same time, restoring bargaining rights could eventually give public employees more ability to negotiate over compensation and working conditions, while potentially increasing costs for some public employers and taxpayers, according to Stein.
Stein called Act 10 “one of the most litigated aspects of public policy” since it passed in 2011, saying it hasn’t been one continuous lawsuit but multiple.
In July, a state appeals court upheld Act 10 after a Dane County Circuit Court ruled parts of Act 10 as unconstitutional in 2024. The case is now being sent to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The lawsuit argues that Act 10’s different treatment of public safety employees and other public employees violates the Wisconsin Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
“A lot of (the permanence of Act 10) depends ultimately on elections,” Stein said, “whether that’s elections that determine the composition of the state Supreme Court or elections that determine the composition of the Legislature.”
Wisconsin Watch reporter Brittany Carloni contributed to this report.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
When Lac du Flambeau Town Clerk Susan Schoonover began her job four years ago, the town’s technology infrastructure was in a bygone era.
The 3,500-person town had no official website, and staff used ordinary email accounts for town business. That could have made it easier for someone to impersonate the town, send convincing phishing messages or steer residents to a fake site. Residents had no verified government domain to tell them which messages and websites were real.
A programmer, Schoonover made changing that setup an early priority. The town got a grant to move staff onto government email addresses, she built an official website using a government domain, and she persuaded the town board to keep investing in cybersecurity even as its property tax revenue shrank.
Lac du Flambeau now stands ahead of hundreds of other small towns in Wisconsin that still use non-government domains, which experts say runs afoul of cybersecurity best practices.
A Votebeat analysis of state data found that about one in three Wisconsin clerks still use Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or other consumer email accounts for election business — and every municipality using one has fewer than 5,000 residents. Most have fewer than 1,000. On the other hand, among municipalities with more than 25,000 residents, not a single clerk uses a consumer account.
It’s a genuine risk not to have government domains, said Trevor Timmons, vice president of the nonpartisan election consultation group Ready for Tuesday. Government sites are “harder to spoof” and “harder to successfully send phishing attacks to,” Timmons said. Phishing is when a scammer sends a link designed to obtain the recipients’ personal information.
The threat isn’t just hypothetical. Hackers tried to breach the emails of election officials in at least nine states in 2021. In November 2016, Russian hackers sent over 120 emails containing malicious software to the email accounts of election officials in Florida. In 2020, the FBI identified dozens of URLs that looked like real election websites, which government officials said could be used to phish or post incorrect election information.
Wisconsin looks relatively typical when viewed statewide. A Bipartisan Policy Center analysis found that about 43% of Wisconsin municipalities and counties with listed websites use government domains, roughly the 44% national average. But that average masks how uneven the technological progress has been: Larger jurisdictions have largely modernized while many of the smallest have not.
“The big difference with .gov is not necessarily that the cybersecurity is so much better, but that your visitors can know that they’re getting information from a trusted, verified government entity,” said William Adler, research director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project.
That becomes harder when real election officials use Gmail, Hotmail and similar accounts.
“If you were to tell a voter, ‘Don’t trust any email coming from an election official that’s from a Hotmail.com address,’ they might ignore real election official communications that they need to respond to in order to vote more easily,” Adler said, adding that it will take a while to get to the ideal point where most or all election jurisdictions use government domains.
Wisconsin’s decentralized election system makes closing the gap difficult. The state has 1,850 municipal clerks and 72 county clerks with roles in running elections, many serving tiny jurisdictions with little or no dedicated IT staff.
“Many of these municipalities don’t have much in the way of IT resources, so it’s fairly impressive that Wisconsin has managed to stay on par with the rest of the country,” Adler said.
The state has spent years — and millions of dollars — trying to help local election offices improve election security and move onto government domains. Hundreds have taken advantage of that help. But the jurisdictions still behind are concentrated in the smallest places.
Consumer emails may have been the norm 30 years ago, Schoonover said, but now towns need to modernize or else risk having their systems tampered with or their data wiped out.
“The way the world’s changed, it can’t always be like old times,” she said.
Wisconsin has spent years funding local election cybersecurity
While some small towns manage the cost of hosting government domains, the expense can be significant for rural municipalities with tiny budgets and little or no IT staff.
In Big Bend, a Rusk County town with around 400 residents, the town board is working through its options because its current email provider, Bruce Telephone Company, is cutting off its email hosting services, Town Clerk Sandy Rassbach said. The town is now choosing between a consumer email provider like Gmail or switching to a government domain, she said.
A couple thousand dollars to maintain a government domain is a big expense for a town, she said.
About 49% of Wisconsin election jurisdictions use government email domains while another 18% use custom domains tied to their municipality. Those custom addresses can have strong security protections, but unlike .gov addresses, they are not restricted to verified government entities.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission has spent years helping local governments improve election security, including through grants specifically aimed at moving municipalities to government domains. But the federal money supporting the programs is dwindling — and WEC has warned that the state may eventually need to step in if it wants to keep subsidizing local election security upgrades.
“If the Legislature wants to see elections in large cities and small towns become more uniform, they may wish to provide funding for WEC to continue to administer subgrants or to directly fund elections for municipalities,” the commission stated in July 2026 budget materials outlining the agency’s future funding needs.
Separately, Wisconsin Emergency Management is administering $4.7 million in federal grants to jurisdictions vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks.
Registering a government domain itself is free, Timmons said. The expense comes from services such as email hosting, technical support and security, which can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.
It would be ideal for providers to offer their services at no cost or reduced costs for election officials, he said, “but it hasn’t quite gotten there yet.”
Timmons said it’s hard for small-town clerks working part-time hours with no IT department to switch to government emails.
One way to accelerate the shift, he said, would be for the commission to condition future election security grants on jurisdictions already having — or agreeing to adopt — government emails.
The commission already conditions grants on certain security requirements. For example, municipalities can only receive the current round of $2,000 election security subgrants if they first use the funds to update operating systems and antivirus software.
Those are critical, Timmons said — and so are government domains.
The elections commission in 2021 told clerks that officials with non-government emails would eventually be cut off from some state services, though that hasn’t come to pass. Many of those services have protections designed to prevent unauthorized access, like multi-factor authentication.
Small towns with little funding likeliest not to have government domains
The disparity is particularly stark in northern Rusk County, a rural county with 14,000 residents spread across 33 municipalities. Twenty-seven of its clerks use consumer email addresses like Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.
Willard is one of the exceptions. Town deputy treasurer Linda Bentley, who has an IT background, spearheaded the town’s switch to government email domains four years ago after she recognized that officials in the Rusk County town were using multiple consumer email domains, like Gmail and Yahoo.
Before the switch, she said, “you really weren’t sure you were getting to the Willard town clerk.”
Town Clerk Mary Jane Nelson said she is “absolutely” more confident communicating with voters now, and she receives significantly fewer spam emails.
“It’s really been a great move, as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
Making that change has required ongoing spending. The town pays $400 every three years for server space, and Bentley charges $200 a year for email security and design — significantly below market rates. Bentley said other nearby towns spend up to $2,000 a year on server space, maintenance and security.
Not every jurisdiction without a government domain is relying on Gmail or Yahoo. Around 360 municipalities use custom domains unique to their municipality, such as kenosha.org or cityofmiddleton.us. Those addresses can have strong security protections, but unlike .gov, they are not restricted to verified government entities.
Those custom domains span the size spectrum, from Fence in Florence County, with fewer than 200 residents, to Madison, with about 285,000. Kenosha is the largest Wisconsin city without a registered government domain for its email or website. Consumer email accounts, by contrast, are concentrated entirely in small municipalities.
It’s often easier to change to government domains if a municipality already has a paid, custom domain, Timmons said, though the switch still requires some technical expertise.
With the November election approaching, Timmons said jurisdictions shouldn’t make major changes to their email systems now. But they can still contact CISA and begin applying for a government domain to prepare for the change after the election.
“I would encourage people to get the ball rolling on that,” he said.
Bentley is glad the town of Willard has already taken those steps. The switch gave the town something more basic: a recognizable identity online.
“It’s become our signature,” she said, “our confidence that you know you’re emailing the town clerk for the town of Willard, not some spoofed address.”
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
In an election year filled with high-stakes races up and down the ballot, Wisconsin voters are likely not hearing much about the contests for secretary of state and state treasurer.
These smaller statewide offices have limited duties, which are written into Wisconsin’s constitution. In addition to the attorney general, the secretary of state and state treasurer lead one of the oldest state agencies, the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which oversees school trust funds and timber management on 78,000 acres of land.
In Wisconsin, these positions lack the powers of officers with similar roles in other states. The Wisconsin secretary of state is responsible for keeping records of official acts from the governor’s office and the Legislature as well as maintaining the Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin, which is attached to official acts taken by the governor. That person does not oversee elections, unlike in 33 other states, where voters get to pick their top election official.
The state treasurer signs checks and oversees the promotion of Wisconsin’s unclaimed property program. Republicans tried to eliminate the position through a constitutional amendment in April 2018, an effort Wisconsin voters rejected.
At the heart of both races this year is debate over the scope of these statewide roles. In the secretary of state race, Republican Jay Schroeder and Democrat JoCasta Zamarripa are at odds over whether the secretary of state should have control over elections, which is not a function of the office.
Schroeder is running to end the Wisconsin Elections Commission and bring election administration under the control of the secretary of state. Zamarripa said she doesn’t believe the secretary of state needs to oversee elections and instead views the role as a platform that can protect voting rights. They also face Green Party candidate Pete Karas, who said the focus of his campaign is breaking the two-party system.
In the state treasurer race, Democratic challenger Yee Leng Xiong said he sees an opportunity for the role to have influence beyond its constitutional duties, while Republican incumbent John Leiber said he wants to provide continuity and direction for the office, not grow its responsibilities.
Should the secretary of state oversee elections?
The race for secretary of state is open this year after Sarah Godlewski, the current office holder, ran for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. Godlewski, who previously served as state treasurer, was appointed after former Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette resigned in 2023. La Follette was first elected in 1974, and after running for lieutenant governor in 1978 he served 40 consecutive years in office.
The focus of the 2026 contest has become a debate over what role the secretary of state should have in elections.
Jay Schroeder (Courtesy of Jay Schroeder)
Schroeder, the Republican candidate, said he believes there is a lack of trust in elections and pointed to issues in Green Bay where the former clerk, who later resigned, sent duplicate ballots to voters earlier this year. He also referenced a misleading claim that there are more dead people on Wisconsin’s voter rolls than those alive. Wisconsin’s voter list includes both active registered voters and inactive ones, who may have been previously registered to vote and died or moved from the state. Only active registered voters can cast a ballot in Wisconsin elections.
If elected, Schroeder said he wants to disband the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the agency created by the Republican-led Legislature in 2016 that oversees election administration with the help of local governments. He also wants to place control of elections under the purview of the secretary of state. Both ideas are efforts that would take action from the Legislature and the governor to change existing laws.
Schroeder said his election would provide a “bully pulpit” to advocate for changes to elections. Schroeder won the GOP nomination in August with 47% support in a four-way contest, despite the Republican Party of Wisconsin endorsing one of his opponents.
“I’m running on this crystal-clear issue,” Schroeder said. “So if I get elected, I could go to whoever is the governor, whoever is in the Legislature and say, ‘Look, people. This is my platform. The people in the state of Wisconsin ratified it.’”
JoCasta Zamarripa (Courtesy of JoCasta Zamarripa’s campaign)
Zamarripa, the Democratic nominee and a Milwaukee City Council member, said she is “fearful” of Schroeder’s goals should he get control of the secretary of state’s office. She specifically pointed to Schroeder’s support of President Donald Trump and described Schroeder as an election denier for past comments questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election. Wisconsin Watch asked Schroeder about a 2021 press release from his prior secretary of state campaign in which he called for the state’s 2020 presidential electors “to be rescinded.” He said not enough research was done into the election results at the time, but that the issue was in the past.
Zamarripa, who served 10 years in the state Assembly, said she looked into how Wisconsin’s secretary of state could have a role in elections, but believes the Wisconsin Elections Commission is the best fit for the state at this time.
“Having worked with their leadership and knowing what my opponent’s goal is, I feel that the best thing I can do is make sure again that I’m using my soapbox to ensure that Wisconsinites feel safe and secure when they head to the polls,” she said. “And that they will head to the polls because they feel that safety and security and confidence.”
If she is elected, Zamarripa wants to support the existing duties of the secretary of state, including maintaining public records and constituent services. If Democrats win control of the governor’s office and the Legislature, she sees potential for the office to have more of a role in supporting small businesses across the state.
“I do think that my office, especially under my leadership, could play that role of some type of convener, some type of clearinghouse for immigrant entrepreneurs, all entrepreneurs, small business folks trying to make it in Wisconsin,” she said.
Zamarripa, who would be the first Latina elected to a statewide office, said she is inspired by the late Vel Phillips, a former Milwaukee council member who was the first woman and first Black person elected statewide when she won the secretary of state’s office in 1978.
Pete Karas (Courtesy of Pete Karas)
Karas, a retired small business owner from Muskego, said his campaign could help break the state’s two-party system, which he said is unpopular among voters. An August Marquette University Law School Poll found a majority of registered voters said they had unfavorable views of the Democratic and Republican parties.
“Our campaign’s job is to educate them, to let them know that even if they’re Republican and afraid of the socialists, or they’re Democrats and afraid of the fascists, that this is a race where you can vote third party, and what you’re doing is voting to change the system,” Karas said.
Karas was elected as a Green Party candidate to the Racine City Council, where he served from 2003 through 2009. If elected, Karas said he would focus on digitizing records and serving on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. Karas said he would additionally prohibit data centers and high-powered transmission lines on public lands under the board’s control.
Wisconsin hasn’t reelected a state treasurer in more than 20 years
The race for state treasurer features the one statewide office where Republicans have an incumbent on the ballot this November.
John Leiber (Courtesy of John Leiber)
Leiber was elected in 2022 when he defeated his Democratic opponent by about 38,000 votes in a year in which voters reelected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul and sent Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson back to Washington, D.C.
While Republicans have previously sought to eliminate the office, Leiber said the position has allowed him to provide a Republican perspective on various boards. It also has elevated his standing among Republicans.
Leiber said some of the accomplishments during his first term include supporting programs under the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, such as the municipal loan program that helps cash-strapped local governments. He also highlighted efforts to grow and protect the BCPL’s $1.6 billion common school fund, which distributes funds to public school libraries across the state.
If reelected, Leiber said he wants to keep those efforts from his first term moving forward. He also wants to provide more continuity to an office that has not had a multiterm state treasurer since Republican Jack C. Voight served from 1995 through 2007.
“We had a referendum that people said, ‘Nope, we want that office,’” Leiber said. “The question now is what is it going to do? What benefit can it bring to the people? And that’s really what I’ve been trying to focus on.”
The key difference between Leiber and his Democratic opponent is how they view the scope of the job. Leiber, who previously worked as a legislative staffer and a tax adviser in the Department of Revenue, said he does not see a need to expand the office beyond what is currently allowed.
“What I’m not going to do is talk about issues that have nothing to do with the state treasurer,” Leiber said. “I think it’s easy to spread yourself too thin, and it’s important to realize, or to know what you can actually get done with the Legislature.”
Yee Leng Xiong (Matt Roth)
Xiong, a sitting Marathon County Commissioner and a D.C. Everest Area School Board member, said the written duties of the state treasurer should not prevent the person from using the platform to help Wisconsinites.
“It’s not the constitutional office powers that makes it an influential position,” Xiong said. “It’s what you do with that position that makes it influential.”
In addition to the state treasurer’s existing responsibilities, Xiong said he wants to make the role more of a fiscal watchdog who can perform state audits, provide transparency portals on how government dollars are spent and convene groups that can do things like boost financial literacy or help navigate retirement savings. Democratic control of the governor’s office and Legislature could provide flexibility to broaden what the state treasurer is allowed to do, Xiong said.
Xiong, of Weston, said his experience in local government and as the executive director of the nonprofit New Beginnings for Refugees in Wausau would translate well to serving as state treasurer. In those roles, he has managed budgets and built relationships to address challenges in north central Wisconsin, he said.
While he is the one statewide Democratic candidate taking on an incumbent Republican, Xiong believes he is able to engage Asian American voters who are excited by his campaign. Xiong is the son of Hmong refugees who fled Laos following the Vietnam War and would be Wisconsin’s first Asian American statewide elected official.
“If I was so lucky to be fortunate to be elected by Wisconsin, it would mark a new era for the Hmong community,” Xiong said.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
This week Wisconsin Watch marks four years since we published our first Fact Brief in partnership with Gigafact. We call this effort the “fight for facts.”
Since then we’ve produced nearly 700 short yes/no responses to surprising or dubious claims we spot in the infosphere. The goal is to combat the rising tide of misinformation by helping the public find reliable information about a range of topics.
For those four years our reporters have mostly been the ones hunting for potential misinformation.
But thanks to a new partnership with the Center for Media Engagement, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization at The University of Texas at Austin, we’re experimenting this election season with a new tool that invites the public to flag possible misinformation.
The crowdsourcing tool is called Truth Sleuth, and it provides our fact-checking team a dashboard to investigate claims submitted by the public. We’re particularly interested in spotting and debunking false claims related to the election, like false information about polling locations or election dates.
When asked “Which agency would you like to report to?” choose Wisconsin Watch.
Follow the step-by-step instructions to categorize your submission and share the information.
Once you hit submit, we’ll receive your report and look into it.
What kind of information do I submit?
In general, you can submit any information that seems questionable. Our Fact Briefs are based on claims we find “surprising or dubious.” Not all of the claims we check are false, though we try to prioritize those.
You can submit a link to the source or a detailed description of what you saw. You can also submit a photo if, for example, you spot misinformation in one of those campaign fliers that will be stuffing your mailbox this October.
Nothing is too insignificant — if you have doubts about it, chances are other people do too.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
The Nov. 3 race for Wisconsin attorney general, a rematch between Democratic incumbent Josh Kaul and Republican challenger Eric Toney, features their contrasting views on the Trump administration, abortion, election security and problems in crime lab testing.
Kaul, 45, a former federal prosecutor and private attorney, won his first four-year term as attorney general in 2018, defeating Republican incumbent Brad Schimel, 49.4% to 48.8%.
Toney, 42, a former private attorney, was first elected Fond du Lac County district attorney in 2012. He lost to Kaul by 1.3 percentage points in 2022.
Kaul’s opposition to President Donald Trump has largely defined his second term. He has joined in more than 70 lawsuits to fight Trump administration initiatives, including some to restore funding for infrastructure and schools.
Toney accuses Kaul of being too political and criticizes Kaul’s administration for shortcomings in the state crime labs. When Kaul ran in 2018, he made similar arguments about Schimel’s legal actions against the Obama administration.
Other issues animating voters this election season reveal clear distinctions between the candidates.
Asked about abortion, Toney defended the state’s ban on abortion after 20 weeks and linked the issue to a federal Title IX investigation into a New Richmond School District policy allowing transgender female students to use the girls bathrooms. Kaul said he would join multistate litigation to protect access to abortion medication.
On officer-involved shootings, Kaul advocated for jail alternatives while Toney put the focus on the victim’s actions prior to the shootings.
On election integrity, Kaul emphasized guarding against voter intimidation while Toney focused on preventing and prosecuting voter fraud.
Wisconsin Watch interviewed Kaul in Madison on Aug. 6 and Toney in Milwaukee on Sept. 11. Here are some key areas where the candidates disagree, with contextual information from Wisconsin Watch.
Wisconsin Watch (WW) to Josh Kaul: You said you’ve joined more than 60 multistate cases against the Trump administration. Does that make you a partisan actor?
Kaul: “I look at two things when I decide whether we’re going to join a multistate suit. One is, is the program that we’re talking about, the (federal government) action that’s being taken, is it harmful to Wisconsinites? And then secondly, do we have a strong legal basis for the case? Now, people can disagree on whether programs are important for Wisconsin or not; that’s part of why we have elections for these offices. But I think if you look at our track record, you’ll see we’ve had wins where we’ve gotten either orders blocking what the administration has tried to do, or the administration has backed down in a number of those cases.”
More context
A ChatGPT-assisted analysis Sept. 15 found that of the 72 lawsuits Kaul has joined against the second Trump administration, 40 won a permanent or temporary favorable ruling or settlement, nine failed and 23 are pending. Successful cases include a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding birthright citizenship; court rulings blocking a $65 million cut to federal research funding of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and orders blocking the Trump administration from demanding states provide personal information of FoodShare recipients.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul at his campaign office in Madison, Wis., on Aug. 6, 2026. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
WW to Eric Toney: What is your assessment of Kaul’s lawsuits against the Trump administration?
Toney: “Well, one of the things we saw when he first ran for attorney general, he campaigned against federal lawsuits and said the office was too political. And now he’s broken that promise, and that’s essentially what his entire campaign is about. And so we see the consequences where the politics are coming before public safety.”
More context
In his first campaign for attorney general, Kaul accused then-Attorney General Brad Schimel, a Republican, of politicizing the office by filing too many lawsuits against the Obama administration. But Kaul also said he would join lawsuits that protect consumers and students.
WW to Toney: What’s one thing from the Kaul administration you would stop doing?
Toney: “The failure we’re seeing in the broken promises with the forensic testing at the (state) crime lab. We’ve seen, when I helped the attorney general get more crime lab positions in the ‘23 budget, when the nonpartisan audit came out a year later, we saw that those positions hadn’t been filled, that they had less DNA analyst positions filled compared to 2020.”
More context
A 2024 audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau found that the vacancy rate of crime laboratory analyst positions increased from 2.6% in July 2019 to 9.5% in July 2023; and that the median turnaround time for analyzing evidence increased from 39 days for assignments created in FY 2019-20 to 58 days for assignments created in FY 2022-23.
Toney: “And we’re seeing the consequences of that with increased time for testing is taking, on average, over twice as long in some categories, including DNA, despite more resources. We have to take some of the recommendations from that nonpartisan audit with performance metrics in place for these analysts, who do a great job. But we have to have those standards in place.”
More context
Wisconsin Watch found the median time for DNA testing in criminal cases was 112 days in 2024, up from 61 in 2022. Annual DNA case intake dropped from 4,347 in 2022 to 4,124 in 2024. But the number of items of evidence increased from 38,076 to 39,992. And data cited by Toney on staffing don’t indicate which positions are accountable for the crime labs’ output.
Wisconsin attorney general candidate Eric Toney interviewed at the Milwaukee Police Association Sept. 11, 2026. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
Toney: “We saw the campaign promise that he had talked about, the rape kit test, for example. And towards the end of that first campaign, he talked about all the hard work that was going to be needed to find justice for those survivors. And so what we’ve seen from those original kits, it was probably over $9 million, over 4,000 kits tested, and in his almost eight years as attorney general, they’ve gotten less than 15 convictions.”
More context
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in 2024 that in 2015, three years before Kaul took office, Wisconsin received $9.5 million in federal grants to test and clear a backlog of rape kits and only 10 people were convicted of sex offenses over the next 10 years as a result.
WW to Kaul: Your opponent has said that on average, DNA testing is taking twice as long as it did under the previous attorney general. What is your response?
Kaul: “He’s making a comparison that’s not a direct comparison. When it comes to DNA analysis in particular during my time as AG, we upgraded the type of testing we do. We now use what’s called probabilistic genotyping. And as a result of that, we’re able to get DNA matches in more cases. So we can actually solve more cases and hold more people accountable for crimes they’ve committed. But it also is a more involved process, and so doing a case is more complex.
“Another area we’ve seen that happen is with toxicology testing. We’ve upgraded. We now use technology that allows us to identify controlled substances at lower quantities — which, at a time when we’re dealing with fentanyl, which can be very potent at very low quantities, is really important. But it also means we get more data, and so analysts are reviewing more data.”
“What we have had a challenge with is the Legislature has consistently declined to give us the resources that we’ve asked for.”
More context
In the 2023-25 state budget, Kaul requested 16 additional crime labs positions and the Legislature provided three; in 2025-27, Kaul requested 19 and the Legislature provided none.
WW to both: U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said he wants to make the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision on abortion permanent in every state. What would that mean for Wisconsin?
Kaul: “Clearly there is an effort at the federal level to restrict access to abortion rights. One of the things that has been talked about is trying to put restrictions in place on medication abortion, for example. And so, obviously, a critical issue that we have worked on during my time as AG is protecting access to safe and legal abortion in Wisconsin. If there’s federal action where we’ve got a strong legal basis for challenging it, and it’s in the interest of Wisconsinites to challenge it, we will be prepared to do so.
“In Eric Toney, you have an AG candidate who was more than happy to be the lead abortion enforcer in the state. He called for the AG’s office to have enforcement authority. He raised the possibility of adjoining counties even prosecuting people for abortions, prosecuting medical professionals. And so reproductive rights is very much at stake in this year’s elections.”
More context
Toney said during the previous campaign (but later said he was taken out of context): “We need to give our attorney general the authority to prosecute. They already would have the technical authority to investigate it. And I think another approach would be allowing for adjoining counties to be able to investigate and enforce that abortion ban in Wisconsin.”
Toney: “We have five-month, or 20-week, protections in the law right now. I’m not advocating for any changes to that, and if there is going to be any change, that needs to be something that’s voted on by the people and not decided on by politicians in Madison. We know how difficult this decision can be for women and girls and their families, and we need to make sure here in Wisconsin that we’re creating a supportive environment for women and girls that I hope life may be the choice that they decide to make. And that support has to extend beyond that as well and making sure that we’re protecting women and girls’ private spaces, bathrooms, locker rooms and sports. And we’ve seen the attorney general has failed to stand up in New Richmond, Wisconsin, where we’ve seen the school district allowing biological boys in the girls bathrooms.
More context
In April, parents and students filed a federal lawsuit claiming the district allows “male students to use girls’ bathrooms based on gender identity rather than biological sex.”
“And that’s in contrast to Josh Kaul, where he essentially advocated for getting rid of the five-month protections. He called them restrictions and is effectively advocating for nine-month abortion here in Wisconsin.”
More context
On Toney’s nine-month claim, Toney’s campaign cited a 2024 interview in which Kaul was asked: “A Wisconsin law prohibits abortion after 20 weeks. What more do you want to see there in the law?” Kaul replied: “What we have are not protections. We have restrictions on abortion in state law. I’d like to see some changes made that ensure that people are able to get the reproductive health care they need, and that decisions are made between women and their doctors or their spouses or their spiritual advisors — whoever it is that they want to talk to — but not having the government intervene.”
Wisconsin attorney general candidate Eric Toney is seen at the Milwaukee Police Association Sept. 11, 2026. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
WW to both: Does Wisconsin’s attorney general need to do more to safeguard Wisconsin elections?
Toney: “We’ve got great protections in the law right now, if we have somebody that’s serving a felony sentence, to deter them from registering to vote and then prosecuting them if they ultimately vote. And I’ve prosecuted some of those cases where felons have ultimately registered and voted.
“And that’s where we need to have a similar process that reviews noncitizens that could be on our voter rolls. We have people that are lawfully in the country that are noncitizens, whether it’s for work or school, that may get a driver’s license or an ID card, and we don’t know what that problem could be because there’s no process in place to review it. And that’s where I’d like to see a similar process that we use for felons for that noncitizen process, just to make sure that people have confidence in those results. And if somebody is doing that, that they’re being prosecuted.
“But we don’t know what the number is because we’ve been unable to get the (state election commission and state Department of Transportation) to communicate on some of that information.”
Kaul: “Throughout my time as AG, we’ve had concerns about elections being attacked in one way or the other. I was AG in 2020 when Donald Trump and his allies tried to overturn the results. We defended the results in various cases and we won every one of those cases and ultimately the will of the voters was upheld.
“There have been concerns over the years about voter intimidation at the polls and we made clear that voter intimidation is a crime and that people who commit that crime need to expect to be held accountable.”
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul at his campaign office in Madison, Wis., on Aug. 6, 2026. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
WW to both: The fatal Madison police shooting of Corey Ruiz, who was armed with a knife, has raised debate about officer-involved shootings. Should changes be made, inside or outside of the criminal justice system?
Kaul: “One thing I’ve long been a proponent of is investment in treatment and diversion programs. The fundamental idea is, if there are folks who end up in the justice system because they have committed violent crimes and they’re a danger to our communities, they need to be held accountable and separated from society. On the other hand, there are people who end up in our justice system who have underlying struggles like drug addiction or mental health challenges. And if you put those people in jail, in a lot of cases for minor offenses, and then they come right back out without having those underlying issues addressed, they’re likely to keep ending up back in the system, causing more damage and costing more money to communities and having worse outcomes for them as well.
“I think you’re going to get better outcomes in general when you have law enforcement officers who know the communities where they’re working. And so investing in things like community policing, I think, is really valuable.”
Toney: “Whenever we look at a problem we have to look at the entirety of the problem. When we look at officer-involved shootings, we have to look at what is the officer doing and then what is the individual who’s been shot doing. And we see a tremendous amount of training for law enforcement, whether it’s de-escalation, use of force, all of those different types of things.
“We can’t paint anything with a broad brush, but many of these officer-involved shootings, we have somebody that either may have a weapon, acts like they have a weapon, or is actively resistant or not following the commands of law enforcement. And so we want to make sure that if somebody disagrees with what law enforcement’s doing, that they follow those commands in the moment, and then they can take whatever that legal process may be after the fact if they think something was done unlawful.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
Over the past several years, gridlock between the Republican Legislature and Democratic governor’s office means election legislation in Wisconsin has hardly seen the light of day.
Though Republican lawmakers have pushed for stricter voting rules, Gov. Tony Evers has blocked those efforts at several turnsduring his eight years in office, leaving election policy changes in a stalemate of bills and vetoes. Instead, courts have increasingly become the primary venue for election rules to be challenged and changed.
That dynamic could change after November’s elections. Democrats hope to retain the governor’s office and win control of both legislative chambers. Republicans are vying to hold the Legislature and flip the governor’s office. Either outcome would give one party unified control of state government — a so-called trifecta — and a much clearer path to enacting its election priorities.
The results could shape election rules over the next several years, including how voters cast ballots and have them counted in the 2028 presidential election.
Still, unified control would not necessarily produce dramatic changes to Wisconsin election policy. Some major election policies are now written into the state Constitution, and Republicans have already achieved many of their goals.
“I don’t see big changes coming in state law, almost regardless of what partisan configuration the state ends up with after the election,” said UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden, who runs the school’s Elections Research Center. Republicans, he said, took advantage of a political trifecta from 2011 to 2018 to implement their biggest priorities.
Democrats would have limited room to change policy
If Democrats were to win a trifecta, Burden said, Republicans’ past success in putting major election policies into the state Constitution wouldn’t leave them much room to maneuver.
They could try to make the state’s voter ID law more accommodating, but eliminating it altogether would be difficult, he said. Democrats could turn toward other priorities, like enacting automatic voter registration and potentially allowing people with felonies to vote if they’re on parole.
Sen. Mark Spreitzer, a Democrat from Beloit, said that if Democrats win a trifecta they would immediately try to pass legislation allowing election officials to process ballots on the Monday before an election. That measure would give officials an extra day to process ballots, likely speeding up unofficial results at the end of the night.
“These are very low-hanging fruit that either Republicans were interested in but didn’t have unanimity on, or, in a couple of these cases like drop boxes and curing, we have a different perspective than they do,” Spreitzer said.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, told Votebeat he would prioritize the Monday processing proposal.
“This common-sense change would help election workers process ballots more efficiently and reduce delays in reporting results, while maintaining the security and integrity of the election process in Wisconsin,” he said.
Crowley also said he would support better funding for local election officials, which has long been a concern for municipal and county clerks in Wisconsin. Spreitzer agreed.
Democrats could also revive some of the bills that have stalled under GOP leadership, including shortening the state’s residency requirement, banning firearms near polling places and establishing automatic voter registration.
Crowley himself was the lead author on an automatic voter registration bill during his brief tenure in the Legislature. Like most Democratic election bills under the GOP Legislature, his bill didn’t receive a public hearing or floor vote.
Republicans could prioritize noncitizen voting legislation
Republicans would also have limited room for broad policies if they won a trifecta, Burden said, largely because they enacted most of their policy priorities during their previous period of unified control. That includes one of the nation’s strictest voter ID laws and a requirement to reject absentee ballots missing a witness address.
One area where they could go further is citizenship verification. Republicans could pursue requirements that voters provide documentary proof of citizenship, Burden said, or revive efforts to audit the state’s voter rolls for potential noncitizens.
“That has just been a drumbeat coming out of the Trump administration: executive orders, lawsuits, DOJ actions, requests for data from the state, and other things,” he said. “So Republicans in the state will feel pressure, if nothing else, from the Trump administration to do something more about citizenship in such a key battleground state.”
Republican lawmakers have already pursued such measures. Earlier this year, Evers vetoed a bill that would have required a noncitizen voter audit. During legislative testimony in January, Rep. Dave Maxey, the GOP chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, said that he would prefer IDs used for voting to also clarify a person’s citizenship status. Maxey didn’t respond to Votebeat’s request for comment.
Republicans could also revive other election bills Evers vetoed, including legislation that would have banned those with felonies from voting until they paid certain court fees and a proposal to eliminate the voter ID exemption for people who are indefinitely confined because of age or a disability.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany, a U.S. representative from northern Wisconsin, has also supported several election policies that could become relevant under unified GOP control. In Congress, he voted for the federal SAVE Act, which would have required people registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentary proof of citizenship. In his time in the state Legislature, Tiffany co-authored the bill that led to the state’s voter ID requirement.
He acknowledged the Monday ballot processing bill at a press conference in August, but didn’t signal whether he supported it. This specific policy priority may have more of a chance, Burden said, because it has broad support across the spectrum despite some GOP dissension.
Stalemate likely to continue under divided government
The stalemate that has been the status quo since 2018 would likely continue under any form of divided government, Burden said. Even if Republicans win a trifecta, Democrats have a backstop in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has a 5-2 liberal majority, Burden said. Republicans, meanwhile, could challenge Democratic priorities in federal court, where they may have the upper hand.
“With Evers and Republicans in power the last eight years, it’s been mostly stalemate: lots of vetoes and very little actual lawmaking around elections,” Burden said. “If things were to flip with Tiffany in office and Democrats were to win both chambers — I think that’s unlikely — I would expect more stalemate.”
Spreitzer, the Democratic senator, said some proposals, like the Monday processing bill and deleting poll list numbers from the back of absentee ballots, may still be viable under split control.
“Those are things we could very easily get done and demand in a split-government situation,” he said.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Wisconsin voters on Nov. 3 will decide whether to approve three Republican-led state constitutional amendments that GOP lawmakers say would limit government overreach and Democrats describe as unnecessary.
The general election referendums would limit the governor’s use of the partial veto to raise taxes and fees, prevent the government from stopping religious gatherings during future emergencies and ban discrimination by state and local governments and public education institutions.
To amend the state constitution, lawmakers must sign off on identical language during two consecutive two-year legislative sessions before putting the question to voters. Under Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Republicans have often turned to constitutional amendments as a way to advance their priorities without confronting the governor’s veto pen.
State Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Hortonville, who led the ballot question on prohibiting government discrimination, said he sees a distinction between the types of issues addressed through legislation, which could reach the governor’s desk, and “fundamental” questions brought in a constitutional amendment. Murphy, who was first elected to the Assembly in 2012, is not running for reelection this year.
“There are lots of things that I would do that Tony Evers would have vetoed. There are very few things that I would bring as a constitutional amendment to try to get around that,” Murphy said. “I’m glad that I can take this to the people for a signing rather than to Gov. Evers because I think the people will support this, but I think he maybe would have vetoed it.”
Including the three this year, GOP lawmakers have put 12 constitutional amendments to voters during Evers’ nearly eight years as governor. Voters have approved seven of them. Nearly 63% of voters approved the most recent referendum in April 2025 on requiring photo identification to vote.
Evers is encouraging voters to reject the Republican-led referendums.
“I think they’re all frankly off base, and I’m encouraging people to say no,” Evers told Wisconsin Watch. “I mean, if we want our legislators to look like that and do stupid things like that, then vote yes. But I think most people are fine with what it is.”
Milwaukee County executive and Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Crowley is also splashing cold water on the amendments. He said he would “absolutely not” vote for the governor’s veto amendment. He said the DEI amendment threatens government efforts to help older adults, veterans, people with disabilities and “individuals of all races, genders and religions.” On the amendment to allow religious gatherings during emergencies, he said “under extreme circumstances, leaders must make difficult decisions for the greater good of our state.”
“But let’s be clear: This is a bad faith argument from far-right extremists to distract from the fact they caused an affordability crisis for Wisconsin families,” Crowley said.
Republican nominee and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany said he plans to support all three questions.
“No governor, Republican or Democrat, should have unchecked power to raise taxes or fees with the stroke of a pen, especially for the next 400 years. While David Crowley wants to preserve that power, I support ending it regardless of who holds the governor’s office,” Tiffany said. “I also support constitutional protections for places of worship. Our constitutional rights should never be conditional, and our government should never be allowed to discriminate.”
Here is what you need to know about the three constitutional amendments.
The governor’s partial veto
Text on the ballot: “Shall section 10 (1) (c) of article V of the constitution be amended to prohibit the governor, in exercising his or her partial veto authority, from creating or increasing or authorizing the creation or increase of any tax or fee?”
The background: Republicans advanced this question as a constitutional amendment after Evers used his veto pen during the 2023-25 budget to raise school revenue limits by $325 a year for the next 400 years. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority in 2025 sided with Evers in a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the 400-year veto.
Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, who led the ballot question through the legislative process, said voter approval will reset the separation of powers between the Legislature, the executive branch and the courts.
“It’s always about separation of powers,” Kapenga said in an interview. “This is a mechanism put in place specifically for this reason, so that if we feel that those other two branches breached their authority in that separation, we say we’re going to go directly to the people and let them make that decision.”
Republicans running for office this year have claimed incorrectly that the veto raises property taxes for the next 400 years. The veto actually raises annual revenue limits, not a specific tax or fee.
The revenue limit caps how much school districts can receive in revenue from a combination of general state aid and property taxes. Local school boards decide how much property taxes to raise and are not required to levy the maximum allowed amount, though historically most have. Under the revenue limit, the Legislature and governor can reduce local property taxes by significantly increasing general state aid to schools, but that rarely happens.
What groups support it?: Groups including the Wisconsin Property Taxpayers, Americans for Prosperity, the Wisconsin Realtors Association and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce all registered in support of the resolution during the 2023 and 2025 legislative sessions.
Who is opposed?: State lobbying records show the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state’s largest teachers union, and the League of Women Voters registered in opposition to the question.
Crowley told reporters in August he would be willing to use the partial veto if elected.
“They want to eliminate the power of the governor, and so what they’re trying to do is just rig the system,” Crowley said. “This is not about rigging the system. This is about listening directly to constituents and figuring out how we can deliver on their behalf.”
Gathering in places of worship during emergencies
Text on the ballot: “Shall section 18 of article I of the constitution, which deals with religious liberty, be amended to prohibit the state or a political subdivision of the state from ordering the closure of, or forbidding gatherings in, places of worship in response to a state of emergency, including a public health emergency?”
The background: When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Wisconsin, the Evers administration’s “Safer at Home” order limited what businesses and activities could remain open in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.
The order limited religious gatherings to fewer than 10 people. It categorized liquor stores as essential businesses allowed to remain open, which state Rep. Ron Tusler, R-Harrison, said sent a bad message to Wisconsinites.
A constitutional amendment on the November ballot would prohibit the government from closing churches during health emergencies. Yante Turner of Sun-Seeker MKE is shown speaking to the crowd as dozens of community members attended the 24th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Program on Jan. 20, 2025, at the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Milwaukee. (Julius Shieh / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
The Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020, under a conservative majority at the time, struck down Evers’ “Safer at Home” order. But Tusler, who led the question during the 2025 session, said a constitutional amendment would prevent the government from controlling people’s access to places of faith in the future.
“Many of us, you know, dedicate our entire lives toward our faith, and in a situation like COVID, there’s a lot of fear, and there’s a lot of uncomfort, and there’s a lot of strangeness, things we’re not used to,” Tusler told Wisconsin Watch. “When we’re in a situation like that, people of faith need their faith at that moment more than ever, and to deprive people of it is a particularly heinous sin that our government shouldn’t commit.”
What groups support it? Pro-Life Wisconsin and Wisconsin Family Action, Inc. registered in support of the ballot language during the 2023 and 2025 legislative sessions.
Who is opposed?: The League of Women Voters opposed the constitutional amendment, according to state lobbying records.
“Closing places of worship does not prevent any person from worshipping God, as such worship can and is practiced on an individual basis in one’s own home during an emergency,” the organization wrote.
Prohibiting DEI in government
Text on the ballot: “Shall section 27 of article I of the constitution be created to prohibit governmental entities in the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting, or public administration?”
The background: Murphy, the Republican state representative from Hortonville, said the idea for the ballot question stemmed from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard, which found considering race in admissions to higher education institutions is unconstitutional. Murphy said he saw an opportunity for a broader question that covered discrimination and giving preferential treatment to certain populations across all levels of government and education.
“I’m just very much of a supporter of the idea that when people put government in charge of something, they want it to be the best it can be,” Murphy said. “One of the ways to do that is not to put a bunch of things that get in the way of picking based on merit.”
Republicans are supporting a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would end government programs with preferential treatment by race. In this photo, Tia Richardson speaks in front of the mural she painted during a mural unveiling at the Community Development Alliance on Feb. 18, 2026, in Milwaukee. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
Responding to criticism that the referendum could end programs that help disadvantaged groups in Wisconsin, Murphy said governments and schools can continue those efforts as long as everyone is able to participate.
“People that are disadvantaged are disadvantaged,” Murphy said. “If programs help disadvantaged people, then they will still be helped. It can’t exclude anybody.”
What groups support it? The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty won a case before the state Supreme Court, which found an undergraduate financial aid program for minority students was unconstitutional.
The case was decided unanimously by the liberal-controlled court, though liberal justices broke from conservatives to point out that the country’s history of racial discrimination continues to be entrenched in societal outcomes. The case advanced to the court as lawmakers were considering putting the constitutional amendment before voters.
The conservative law firm registered in support for the constitutional amendment during the legislative process. WILL Managing Vice President and Deputy Counsel Dan Lennington said the referendum will “end discriminatory DEI programs throughout Wisconsin and ensure our government serves all citizens equally.”
Who is opposed?: Opponents have claimed the amendment would limit opportunities for disadvantaged groups. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters opposed the constitutional amendment during the legislative process, according to lobbying records.
The League said the amendment intends “to weaken the individual rights and liberties of Americans who have been guaranteed protection by the Civil Rights laws of our country.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
It took mere minutes for conspiracy theorists to seize on a Milwaukee election error after the August primary, when officials initially forgot to extract election results from five of the city’s nine absentee ballot tabulators. They lobbed baseless accusations that election officials had switched votes or otherwise tampered with the results.
But audit logs from those five tabulators show no evidence of tampering between the time officials initially left the facility and returned again to correctly extract results, experts told Votebeat.
“I don’t see a ‘there’ there,” said Duncan Buell, a chair emeritus of computer science and engineering at the University of South Carolina who has been analyzing election data and voting systems since 2010.
Ryan Macias, an election consultant who previously worked for the arm of the Election Assistance Commission that certifies voting machines, agreed there were “no signs or evidence that anything was done outside the norm” between the initial error and the successful extraction of the results.
More than three weeks after the primary election, city officials released audit logs from all nine tabulators to the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the public on Sept. 4. The files detail every action on the nine Milwaukee tabulators used to count absentee ballots for the Aug. 11 election.
On each of the five affected tabulators, the logs tell the same story: Officials mistakenly selected “export audit log” instead of “export files” during the initial extraction, which happened between 10:15 p.m. and about 10:40 p.m. Then, officials locked the machines.
Officials began turning the machines back on at around 11:30 p.m., after they realized they had made a mistake. They extracted the correct files shortly after midnight. The audit logs show no ballots being scanned, votes being deleted, or that the data contained on the tabulators was manipulated in any way.
The error didn’t change the vote count at all. It just delayed election results by a couple hours.
When Macias first learned of the issue, he assumed that the problem was human error and would be resolved.
“Now, looking at the audit log, I can tell you with a 100% fact that what I assumed happened (is what) happened,” he said.
Other experts agreed.
Jennifer Morrell, CEO of The Elections Group, said she reviewed the audit logs with her team of experienced election experts.
“From what I see, those logs match the public account exactly,” she said.
“In the roughly two hours between those two exports, there’s no scanning or counting activity recorded in the logs on any of those five machines,” she said. “And just as importantly, the ballot counts on every machine match the officially reported.”
Conspiracy theories percolated well before Milwaukee released audit logs
Conspiracy theories about what may have transpired in Milwaukee on Election Day began circulating almost immediately after Milwaukee officials announced the mistake. Popular social media accounts questioned the credibility of election officials, and others suggested that officials were directly involved in fraud.
Three days after the election, Votebeat requested the audit logs — the records that could show exactly what happened on the tabulators during the period conspiracy theorists were questioning. Milwaukee did not release them until Sept. 4, more than three weeks later, and after the Wisconsin Elections Commission also asked the city to make them public.
Experts said that delay was not unusual.
“Releasing audit logs — these machine logs — that’s not a typical part of the documentation that election offices normally produce,” Morrell said, adding that it’s likely that Milwaukee would have needed legal approval before releasing the logs. “The fact that they did make them public, I think that’s a responsible process — not a cover-up.”
More important, she said, is that the officials retained the records in the first place.
“The fact that the log is there, the fact that these things are recorded should be seen as a positive even though it was slow for them,” she said. “I think the more concerning thing would be if the log just didn’t exist at all.”
Milwaukee plans better documentation for the future
In response to the error, Milwaukee election chief Paulina Gutiérrez outlined several changes meant to prevent similar problems.
Written instructions for extracting results will now include images showing election officials which options to select on screen, Gutiérrez said in a letter to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Those instructions will also be made available to observers at the city’s absentee ballot facility.
Before the results are downloaded, she said, the extraction teams will be briefed on the process. As workers move through the steps, they will verbally identify each selection they make so other members of the team can confirm they have followed the correct procedure.
“In this instance, an error occurred during the results-download process,” she told the commission. “At the same time, the safeguards surrounding the election worked as intended: The discrepancy was identified, the underlying election results remained intact, the correct files were retrieved, and Milwaukee’s accurate election results were ultimately reported.”
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court begins oral arguments in September under a new 5-2 liberal majority and faces a term that could feature politically charged cases, including those challenging the state’s congressional maps and seeking to restore collective bargaining rights for many public sector unions.
The pending cases before the high court so far, and other legal issues that may arise over the course of the term, provide ample opportunity to observe how the justices operate under a new liberal supermajority, court watchers said. Will they accept more cases following a streak of fewer decisions in recent years than in prior terms? How will the justices respond in real time to election issues during the midterms? Will they change the long-standing approach the court uses to interpret state statutes?
“Now that there is a clear majority, not just a one-vote majority, it’s entirely possible that the justices will start to differentiate themselves from one another more,” said Chad Oldfather, a professor at the Marquette University Law School. “Because there’s less of a pressure to act as a bloc.”
The high court’s liberal majority grew to five after Chris Taylor’s dominant April victory in the 2026 Wisconsin Supreme Court race to replace conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley. Liberal justices have won five of the last six Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, shifting the court from a 5-2 conservative majority in 2018.
Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor celebrates winning the Wisconsin Supreme Court election at the Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club on April 7, 2026, in Madison, Wis. Taylor, backed by Democrats, faced off against Appeals Court judge Maria Lazar, backed by Republicans. Taylor’s win expands the Wisconsin Supreme Court liberal majority to five justices and cements liberal control until at least 2030. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
The liberal wing includes Taylor, Chief Justice Jill Karofsky and justices Rebecca Dallet, Janet Protasiewicz and Susan Crawford. The conservatives include justices Annette Ziegler and Brian Hagedorn, who is often a swing vote.
“I’m guessing that it’s going to not seem like a 5-2 court this coming term,” said Alan Ball, a Marquette University professor who operates the SCOWstats blog that analyzes Wisconsin Supreme Court statistics. “Maybe like a 5-1-1: five liberals and then Ziegler is a conservative, and then Hagedorn, you know, who knows?”
During the 2025 term, Hagedorn voted more often with the liberal wing of the court in split decisions than Crawford did in her first year as a justice, according to Ball’s review of the previous term. But Crawford aligned more with fellow liberals and Hagedorn with conservatives on more political issues, such as a case in the last term between Attorney General Josh Kaul and the Legislature over who controls settlement funds, Ball noted.
Justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments in 16 cases across seven days between Sept. 8 and Oct. 13. More cases could rise to the high court over the course of the new term.
What decisions will justices make about the congressional map?
Justices will hear oral arguments related to two lawsuits challenging Wisconsin’s congressional map on Sept. 16, but any decisions are not expected to impact the 2026 midterm elections, in which primary elections have already set up the candidates in races this November.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court last November tapped two three-judge panels to hear the cases challenging the congressional maps as unconstitutional. One case, brought by a group of voters, argued the maps are a partisan gerrymander. The other case, brought by the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy, argues the congressional maps are an anti-competitive gerrymander.
Both panels dismissed the challenges in separate rulings this spring, writing that only the high court could make decisions about the existing congressional maps. The voters and the business group appealed the decisions.
The issues before the justices in September for the voter-brought case include whether Wisconsin’s constitution allows partisan gerrymandering and, for the Wisconsin Business Leaders case, whether the three-judge panel was wrong in considering “anti-competitive” and partisan gerrymandering as the same argument.
Lucas Vebber, deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, who is representing multiple intervenors in both maps cases, said their position remains that the Wisconsin constitution does not allow the groups in these cases to bring their gerrymandering claims.
“This is a primary function of the Legislature,” Vebber explained. “Courts have a role to play, but they should stay within that role and not go beyond.”
Jeff Mandell, general counsel for Law Forward, a progressive law firm representing the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy in its case, said attorneys have asked the justices to issue a decision by the end of this year ahead of jury trial dates in April in that case.
“If we’re able to hold that trial in April, that should provide time for the trial court to do its work, and for there to be an appeal if need be,” Mandell said. “And for there to be new districts that are constitutional for the 2028 congressional elections.”
There would be no need for a trial if the high court affirms the three-judge panel’s dismissal, which would leave the existing maps in place.
Will emergency election issues rise to the high court?
While the court considers issues in the congressional maps case, legal experts say the stakes of the 2026 midterm elections make it likely that the justices could face potential fast-moving cases on voting and election-related issues.
“We’ve had these fights over ballot boxes and whether you need to have a witness see your vote if you’re disabled. There was a whole issue of what has to be available for a disabled voter,” said Janine Geske, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice and professor at the Marquette University Law School. “Those kinds of things people can go right to the court and say ‘We’re going to bypass everybody. This is an emergency. We need the court to issue a ruling.’ I suspect, especially with all the talk of voting integrity or voting fraud … that we’re going to see that.”
Recently, the high court ordered an expedited process for briefings in an appeal filed by the Democratic National Committee about a 2024 case that sought answers to whether a circuit court has the authority to extend hours at a polling location past 8 p.m.
The Waukesha-based 2nd District Court of Appeals this summer reversed a Walworth County judge’s order from the 2024 presidential election that allowed polling locations at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus to stay open until 10:30 p.m. on Election Day. The 2nd District in July reversed the decision, arguing it is up to the Legislature to determine polling hours.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler hears oral arguments in a case at the Wisconsin State Capitol on Nov. 18, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
The court has yet to accept the DNC’s petition for review, but Ziegler questioned the majority’s motives in her lone dissent against speeding up the briefing process. The majority did not offer an explanation for expediting that timeline.
“We know not why this matter races to the front of the line. One would think further explanation would be forthcoming,” wrote Ziegler, who is not seeking reelection and is in her final year on the court. “One would think the majority would be more cautious to not appear to favor the political party that spent seemingly endless amounts of money to get them elected.”
Will justices accept a case to restore pre-Act 10 collective bargaining rights?
In late July, the 2nd District Court of Appeals reversed a 2024 Dane County Circuit Court ruling that restored collective bargaining rights for many public sector unions and employees. The unions in the case appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court less than three weeks later.
The issues in this case stem from whether portions of Act 10 — the 2011 law signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker that spurred massive protests at the Capitol — that separate public safety and general public employees violate equal protection guarantees in Wisconsin’s constitution.
Geske said she sees a stronger argument in this case than past legal challenges to Act 10. But the justices will have to determine whether the court is held to previous opinions it has made related to Act 10, she said.
“I think that most of the justices who felt that are gone or no longer in the majority,” Geske said.
Mandell, who is among the attorneys representing the unions in the case, said he expects the high court to decide whether to take the case sometime this fall.
“If the court takes the case in the fall, then there’s ample time for it to be briefed and argued this term,” Mandell said. “Which means that by around the Fourth of July, we should have a final answer in Wisconsin about Act 10.”
If the petition is accepted, the case would move forward without Hagedorn, who in January 2025 said he would not participate in the case. Hagedorn was chief legal counsel for Walker when Act 10 was drafted.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn hears oral arguments in a case at the State Capitol in Madison, Wis., on Nov. 18, 2024. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
What should courts use to interpret state laws?
In a seemingly minor case about whether a former salesperson for a window company was eligible for unemployment insurance, the high court is expected to determine if it should use a new framework to interpret state statutes.
For years, the courts have relied on a 2004 case that placed limits on when to use outside evidence, such as legislative history, to understand state statutes. Justices and legal experts have described the case, Kalal v. Circuit Court for Dane County, as the most cited in Wisconsin Supreme Court history.
The question before the high court is whether justices should take “a broader, holistic approach” to interpret state laws than what the Kalal case allows.
“It’s really about how much we trust judges, or in this case, judges trust themselves to adequately or accurately assess things that legislators say,” Oldfather said. “Because the fear, of course, is that legislators will say self-serving things about what they pass into law.”
The case has not been scheduled for oral arguments, but is among pending cases before the justices. Oldfather said it’s likely the majority will take the approach that Dallet wrote about in a 2021 case about conditions in a pollution discharge permit issued by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet waves while being announced as Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers prepares to deliver his final State of the State address at the Wisconsin State Capitol on Feb. 17, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
In 2021, Dallet wrote that the court’s approach to statutory interpretation should be “more comprehensive,” although she acknowledged that some sources may be more reliable than others.
“Such a holistic methodology would lead to more transparent analyses in which the court is upfront and honest about considering relevant extrinsic sources to interpret a statute’s meaning,” Dallet wrote in 2021. “That includes being transparent about those sources’ actual analytical value when they support more than one reasonable inference.”
Dallet brought up that approach again in a 2025 concurring opinion for a case that determined employees of University of Wisconsin hospitals and clinics did not have the ability to collectively bargain under Act 10.
Bradley, who left the court in July, in the same 2025 decision criticized Dallet’s effort and said a “holistic” approach “would remove any remaining constraints on judicial overreach.”
“It’s an open appeal for judges in this state to legislate from the bench,” Bradley wrote. “This court should stay the course and reject Justice Dallet’s invitation to unmoor the judiciary from the rule of law.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Update: The city of Wisconsin RapidsannouncedAug. 28 that its planning commission on Sept. 16 will hold a hearing and make a recommendation to the city council on the request for a conditional use permit for the proposed data center.
Editor’s note: A breach-of-contract lawsuit in Pennsylvania against Andrey Sharkov remains pending, but a claim of fraud in the case was dismissed. This story has been updated to note the claim’s dismissal.
No matter where in the U.S. an artificial intelligence data center is proposed, communities express the same worries.
Water scarcity and contamination, electricity rates and reliability, air pollution, noise.
Residents are voicing those same concerns 100 miles north of Madison in Wisconsin Rapids, where developers want to replace a former paper mill with a 210-acre data center.
But there’s another worry in Rapids that makes the situation different from other Wisconsin communities where data centers have been proposed:
Russians.
“I hear it from other people; people bring it up very often,” data center opponent Mary Olson said.
Ruslan Zinurov, the man who first proposed the data center, was born in Russia.
Anton Voronkin, who has since taken over the project, was born and educated in Russia and worked there for years.
Marissa Johnson, a leader of a group fighting the data center, said that while residents have environmental concerns, the Russian ties are “a sticking point for people.” Some residents don’t say so publicly, out of fear of being perceived as xenophobic, but they worry about the developers’ past business practices, she said.
Marissa Johnson, a member of South Wood County Neighbors for Responsible Development in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., holds a zoning proposal by industrial real estate development firm PNK Group detailing a plan to develop a large-scale data center campus on the site of the former Wisconsin Rapids paper mill. (Drake White-Bergey for Wisconsin Watch)
The questions aren’t limited to whispering.
At public meetings, residents mostly express common fears: How much water will the data center use? Will my electricity rates go up? How can we know it won’t cause air and noise pollution?
One woman urged city officials to “just do the right damn thing” and find any way to block data centers.
But at a city meeting in July, a woman said a “Russian national” had applied to the city for a permit for the data center.
In August, at a meeting organized by the team proposing the data center, one audience member drew applause from the audience when he said to Voronkin:
“We like to know who’s running this operation. And from what I understand, you, sir, are not an American citizen; you’re Russian. Am I right or wrong?”
Voronkin’s reply didn’t seem to satisfy the crowd. “I have worked in many countries overseas,” he said.
Russian born, Green Bay ties
The first record of the data center proposal is an email sent Dec. 16 by Zinurov to Wisconsin Rapids city planner Kyle Kearns. He wrote that he was looking to acquire a site in the city of 19,000 to convert into a data center.
The location turned out to be part of a former paper mill site near downtown and the Wisconsin River.
Kearns replied the next day, writing: “It is exciting to hear about your interest!”
By February, Zinurov had met with Kearns and Mayor Matt Zacher. He said in an email that he was working to acquire part of the mill site. He wondered if the city could help secure electricity and natural gas for the operation.
The proposal didn’t make news until April, when the city planning commission announced a public hearing on Zinurov’s application for what is known as a conditional use permit.
The 43-year-old Zinurov identified himself as being with California-based Performance Computing Holdings. In a 2020 article about a Zinurov-led investment in Ukraine, Zinurov told the Kyiv Post he was born in Russia, his wife is Ukrainian and he had been living in the U.S. more than 15 years.
He also has Wisconsin ties.
Zinurov’s cellphone number has a 920 area code, which covers Green Bay. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, plus a master’s degree in the same subject from the University of California, Berkeley.
Zinurov’s profile also says he founded a company originally known as Consensus Technology Group. In a 2024 interview, he said that company operates data centers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania and Missouri.
According to news reports, Zinurov also partnered with Chinese tech company Bitmain to convert a former paper mill in Washington state into a cryptocurrency-mining business.
Zinurov declined Wisconsin Watch’s requests for an interview, noting in a text that Voronkin has taken over the Wisconsin Rapids project.
Zinurov wrote that he “spent a good chunk of my life in Green Bay, so Wisconsin indeed has a special place in my heart. Go Pack.”
New face of the project
As Zinurov has worked behind the scenes, Voronkin, 42, has become the public face of the Rapids proposal.
By early May, a week after Zinurov filed the permit application, city planner Kearns had turned to emailing with Voronkin instead. Kearns noted that Voronkin and one of his team members, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, had made plans to visit Wisconsin Rapids.
Adams’ background has also riled some residents. While mayor, he was indicted on federal conspiracy charges, which he denied. In April 2025, the charges were dismissed at the request of the U.S. Justice Department.
Voronkin, who was born in Russia, says in his LinkedIn profile that he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in St. Petersburg, Russia. The profile says he worked in commercial development in Russia from 2009 to 2022, when he began development work on Neom, a $500 billion mega-project in Saudi Arabia.
The nonprofit group Human Rights Watch reported in December 2024 that Neom workers suffered abuse, such as being paid less than they were promised. The same month, a Wall Street Journal investigation found Neom employees reported incidents of gang rape, suicide, attempted murder and drug dealing on the site.
In 2026, Voronkin became chief development officer, including for data centers, at PNK Group, a New York-based developer of industrial buildings.
The site of a former paper mill in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., is photographed on Aug. 12, 2026. Industrial real estate development firm PNK Group proposed a plan to develop the site into a large-scale data center campus. (Drake White-Bergey for Wisconsin Watch)
PNK began operations in Russia around 2003, according to the Scranton Times-Tribune in Pennsylvania, where PNK is proposing a data center.
Voronkin said at the August meeting in Wisconsin Rapids hosted by his team that PNK “withdrew the brand from Russia in 2024.”
Data center opponent Mike Schmidt, a local attorney, said he doesn’t trust PNK because of Voronkin’s work with Neom and what Schmidt described as corruption allegations against PNK owner Andrey Sharkov.
In two federal court lawsuits over business matters, Sharkov was accused of fraud in Pennsylvania and is the subject of a racketeer/corrupt organization lawsuit in Utah. Both cases are pending, but the fraud allegation in the Pennsylvania case has been dismissed, and Sharkov has denied the allegations.
“It’s not just that they’re Russian, it’s that they’re behaving in a corrupt fashion,” Schmidt said of Voronkin and Sharkov.
Voronkin declined Wisconsin Watch requests for an interview. In messages, he wrote:
“I am not aware of such concern about my work for Neom. I am proud to be a part of the biggest development in the world and most likely in history. I wish more people had same level of ambitions and could think about the future same way as Neom. There are no corruption charges against Andrey Sharkov.”
He added:
“I have indeed worked on some unique projects, but I don’t think my background is the most exciting subject for Wisconsin Rapids.”
The site of a former paper mill in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., is photographed from across the Wisconsin River on Aug. 12, 2026. The former paper mill site is the location of a proposed large-scale data center by industrial real estate development firm PNK Group. (Drake White-Bergey for Wisconsin Watch)
City nearly poised to act?
Mayor Zacher told Wisconsin Watch that perhaps 15 data center developers and another 15 manufacturers have explored the former mill site but most didn’t move forward. According to his understanding, most data center developers didn’t think enough electricity was available.
Zacher said he has tried to remain neutral as the current data center proposal has advanced and opposition has increased. The city must consider business proposals based on the project’s merits, not who makes them, he said.
Voronkin’s group has continued to try to build local support, holding a series of four webinars in August.
Zacher said the city is waiting for Voronkin’s group to provide more details on their proposal before it acts on their application for a conditional use permit and indicated the waiting time is limited.
“I would say we don’t want to go months,” he said.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
It’s election season, and Wisconsin Watch reporters are researching story ideas to help voters better understand their choices in November.
It’s a big election. Democrats are expected to do well because of a national mood that has turned against Republican President Donald Trump.
In Wisconsin that means Democrats may win control of the Senate and Assembly for the first time in 16 years. If they also win the governor’s office, they would be able to enact a legislative agenda, which they weren’t able to do under eight years of Gov. Tony Evers.
If Republicans hold on to the Assembly or governor’s office, but lose the Senate, expect another four years of gridlock. If they hang on to the Legislature and take back the governor’s office, they could restore the conservative experiment that began under Gov. Scott Walker.
We’re planning to ask the candidates about some of the biggest issues that could turn on the outcome of this election: Will Democrats repeal 2011 Act 10 and what would that mean for the state? Will Republicans encourage mining in the state as a way to lower income taxes? How will either party fix our crowded prison system — by adding more capacity or granting more clemency? What’s the deal with data centers?
With such high stakes, Wisconsin Watch wants to hear from you. What questions should we be asking the candidates for governor, attorney general, lieutenant governor, treasurer, secretary of state? What issues are important in your congressional or legislative districts? Send us your questions by clicking here.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, will not face criminal charges in Wisconsin for promising $1 million checks to voters during the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, a Democrat, who was tapped as a special prosecutor to review the case, wrote in a letter Tuesday that he did not believe a jury would convict Musk of a crime.
“I have routinely worked with campaigns and candidates from both parties and nonpartisan elections to correct any potential violations of election/campaign laws,” Gruenke wrote. “In this case, without the famous name attached and the large dollar amounts involved, it is a simple case of a poorly worded statement that was corrected and brought into compliance with the law.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, said during a campaign stop in Madison he was “befuddled” by the decision.
Crowley, who said he had not read the reasoning behind the decision, was confused how Musk’s promises ahead of a 2025 event in Green Bay did not violate state laws.
Wisconsin law prohibits a person from offering, promising, giving or lending anything of value to someone to convince the person to go to the polls, vote or refrain from voting. The Wisconsin Elections Commission in July found that Musk likely broke the law and referred complaints to the Brown County District Attorney’s Office, which earlier this month referred the case to Gruenke as a special prosecutor after identifying a conflict of interest.
“We are talking about someone who publicly talked about giving a million dollars to folks to actually go vote, which is absolutely against the law here in the state of Wisconsin,” Crowley told reporters outside a health clinic in Madison.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee for governor, did not immediately respond to questions from Wisconsin Watch Tuesday afternoon.
Crowley on Tuesday did not say whether he would support additional legislation to strengthen the state’s election bribery laws.
“I would assume that our laws are very clear as far as the fact that we cannot give more than $1 to make sure that people are voting,” he said. “I think the laws are extremely clear.”
Democratic state lawmakers last year proposed bills seeking to expand the state’s election bribery laws to prohibit payments to voters for signing petitions during an election, like in the Musk case. The legislation died without receiving a hearing in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The context
About $144.5 million was spent on the 2025 election between now-Justice Susan Crawford and former Attorney General Brad Schimel, making it the most expensive state supreme court race in U.S. history. Musk spent about $30 million of that total, which included giveaways to conservative voters.
The issues stemmed from social media posts Musk made in March 2025. The first post promoted an event in Wisconsin in which Musk said entrance would be “limited to those who have voted in the Supreme Court Election” in addition to providing million-dollar checks to voters “in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.”
Musk hours later shared a message that entrance was limited to people who signed a petition “in opposition to activist judges” and the million-dollar checks would be provided to spokespersons for the petition.
Gruenke said he did not believe a jury would convict Musk given that nothing was given to individuals for voting.
“Even if I could convince a jury that the original post was still a bribe, I do not believe that a jury would convict Elon Musk of a crime after considering the intent, the second post, and the fact nothing of value was ever given to anyone for voting for an incident occurring in March of 2025,” Gruenke wrote.
Musk still faces a civil lawsuit in Brown County Circuit Court brought by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign regarding bribery allegations tied to the 2025 state Supreme Court race.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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