Skip to content
Bills from the 2021–22 session

Assembly Bill 761

Removal of deceased individuals from the official voter registration list and providing a penalty. (FE)

Stopped in committee

It never got a ⁠, so it never came up for a vote. To try again, a lawmaker would have to start a new bill.

  1. Introduced, passed

    Dec 7, 2021

  2. Committee, stopped here

    Stopped here. No public hearing was held.

  3. Assembly vote, not reached

  4. Senate vote, not reached

  5. Governor, not reached

  6. Law, not reached

Latest entry in the official record, Mar 15, 2022: “Failed to pass pursuant to ⁠”

It never got a hearing in the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections. See every bill that never got a hearing this session.

Read the bill

Following saves it on this device. New actions show on your Following page. You can also get updates in a feed reader.

What it would have done

Summary by the , the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Current law requires a municipal clerk or board of election commissioners to change the registration of deceased voters from eligible to ineligible status by means of checking vital statistics reports, which the state registrar publishes annually.

This bill eliminates that requirement and requires that the Elections Commission to do all of the following at least monthly:

Read the full summary

1. Seek and obtain the most recent records of all deaths of residents of Wisconsin.

2. Compare the death records with the official voter registration list maintained by the commission.

3. Upon making that comparison, for each voter whose first and last name, address, and date of birth are found on a death record, remove the elector from the registration list and maintain a record of the commission's action.

Additionally, for each elector who currently appears on the registration list as ineligible because he or she is deceased, the Elections Commission must remove the elector from the registration list and maintain a record of the commission's action.

Finally, under current law, criminal penalties are provided for election officials who commit certain specified kinds of election fraud. Otherwise, the willful neglect or refusal of an election official to perform a duty prescribed under the election laws is punishable by disqualification to act as an election official for five years. Under the bill, a member of the Elections Commission or its staff who willfully neglects or refuses to perform any of the duties prescribed in the bill is guilty of a Class I felony.

A Class I felony is punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to three years and six months, or both.

Because this bill creates a new crime or revises a penalty for an existing crime, the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties may be requested to prepare a report.

Who's behind it

10 lawmakers are its ⁠. All 10 are Republicans.

1 more lawmaker ⁠.

See all 11 names

Authors (10)

Signed on in support (1)

What happened

  1. Mar 15, 2022

    The session ended, and the bill died with it.

  2. Dec 7, 2021

    Sent to the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections.

  3. Dec 7, 2021

    Introduced in the Assembly.

See the official record, word for word
  1. Dec 7, 2021 · Assembly

    Introduced by Representatives Ramthun, Brooks, Allen, Behnke, Brandtjen, Cabral-Guevara, Gundrum, Horlacher, Murphy and Wichgers; cosponsored by Senator Jacque

  2. Dec 7, 2021 · Assembly

    Read first time and referred to Committee on Campaigns and Elections

  3. Mar 15, 2022 · Assembly

    Failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1

Terms on this page

Committee

A small group of lawmakers that looks at a bill first. Most bills never leave committee.

More in the glossary

Public hearing

A meeting where anyone can speak to a committee about a bill, or send written comments.

More in the glossary

Senate Joint Resolution 1

The session's calendar. Any bill not passed by its last voting day dies.

Official term: Failed to pass pursuant to SJR 1. More in the glossary

Legislative Reference Bureau

The Legislature's nonpartisan office that drafts bills and writes the summary at the top of each one.

Official term: LRB analysis. More in the glossary

Author

A lawmaker who formally puts a bill forward. The text itself is drafted by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Official term: Author, coauthor. More in the glossary

Signed on in support

Lawmakers who back a bill without being one of its authors, often from the other chamber.

Official term: Cosponsor. More in the glossary

From the Wisconsin Legislature's official record, checked Sep 15, 2026. See the source

Committee

A small group of lawmakers that looks at a bill first. Most bills never leave committee.

Public hearing

A meeting where anyone can speak to a committee about a bill, or send written comments.

Senate Joint Resolution 1

The session's calendar. Any bill not passed by its last voting day dies.

Official term: Failed to pass pursuant to SJR 1

Legislative Reference Bureau

The Legislature's nonpartisan office that drafts bills and writes the summary at the top of each one.

Official term: LRB analysis

Author

A lawmaker who formally puts a bill forward. The text itself is drafted by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Official term: Author, coauthor

Signed on in support

Lawmakers who back a bill without being one of its authors, often from the other chamber.

Official term: Cosponsor