AB 595

Help America Vote Act

Current law allows any person who believes that a violation of the federal Help America Vote Act is occurring or is proposed to occur with respect to an election for national office in this state to file a written verified complaint with the Elections Commission. The person filing the complaint may request a hearing. If a hearing is requested, the commission must make a final determination regarding the merits of the complaint and issue a decision no later than 89 days after receiving the complaint.

The commission has taken a position that it cannot decide a complaint brought against itself. In 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed with that position. See,

Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission

, 2022 WI 64, ¶ 33, 403 Wis. 2d 607, 976 N.W.2d 519. The commission recently received a letter from the federal Department of Justice asserting that such a position violates the administrative complaint requirements under the Help America Vote Act.

Under this bill, if the commission receives a complaint that alleges that the commission itself is violating HAVA and the complaint raises a substantial question of material fact, the commission must make a final determination on the merits of the complaint and issue a decision. The bill prohibits the commission from dismissing the complaint simply because the complaint alleges a commission violation.

The bill specifies that a complainant may request a hearing

if the complaint raises a substantial question of material fact

and that the request must be a

written

request. In addition, if the complaint raises such an issue, the commission may decide to hold a hearing regardless of whether a hearing has been requested. The bill provides that a hearing before the commission to adjudicate an alleged HAVA violation must be held in open session and that the oral proceedings of the hearing must be recorded by stenographic or electronic means, consistent with current law regarding administrative hearings. In addition, the commission must make a transcript of the oral proceedings available for public inspection and in preparation for judicial review. Under current law, all records that are distributed or discussed in the course of a meeting or hearing by the commission in open session are available for public inspection.

The bill also requires that the final determination of a complaint alleging a HAVA violation be in writing. If the commission dismisses a complaint or does not grant the relief requested in the complaint, the person filing the complaint may seek judicial review of the commission’s decision, consistent with current law regarding judicial review of administrative decisions. As required by HAVA, the commission must publish the results of all dismissed complaints on its website.

Data sharing agreements

Current law requires the administrator of the Elections Commission to enter into an agreement with the secretary of transportation to match personally identifiable information on the official registration list maintained by the commission with personally identifiable information maintained by the Department of Transportation in vehicle registration and license records. The bill requires the administrator and the secretary to update the agreement at least once every two years. Under the bill, the commission is given access to information maintained by DOT in order to verify that individuals on the official registration list are U.S. citizens. The bill requires DOT to conduct matching of personally identifiable information maintained by DOT with that on the registration list on a daily basis. Under the bill, if the information on the official registration list for an individual does not match the information for the individual maintained by DOT, DOT must provide to the commission the name and date of birth of the individual and the number of the driver’s license or identification card issued by DOT to the individual. The bill also requires DOT to indicate to the commission whether the individual reported a change of address for purposes of updating records regarding a driver’s license, identification card, or vehicle registration.

Under current law, the municipal clerk must change the registration of deceased electors from eligible to ineligible status by means of checking vital statistics reports. Current law requires the Department of Health Services to establish the Office of Vital Records and to appoint a state registrar to supervise the office. Generally, OVR and the state registrar are responsible for accepting, indexing, and preserving vital records, such as original marriage documents and records of birth, death, and divorce. The bill requires the administrator of the commission and the state registrar to enter into an agreement to match personally identifiable information from the registration list with the death records maintained by OVR. The administrator and the state registrar must update the agreement at least once every two years. Under the bill, OVR must conduct matching of personally identifiable information on a daily basis and immediately notify the administrator of the commission of the name, date of birth, date of death, and place of death of any person on the official registration list for which OVR has a death record.

Under current law, the Department of Corrections must transmit to the commission, on a continuous basis, a list containing the name of each living person who has been convicted of a felony and whose civil rights have not been restored, together with the person’s residential address and the date on which DOC expects the person’s civil rights to be restored. The bill requires DOC to transmit this information to the commission on a daily basis. In addition, the bill requires the secretary of corrections and the administrator of the commission to enter into an agreement to match personally identifiable information from the registration list with the personally identifiable information maintained by DOC and update that agreement at least once every two years.

Removing ineligible voter from the registration list

Under current law, if a voter who appears on the official voter registration list maintained by the Elections Commission becomes ineligible to vote for any reason, his or her status is changed from eligible to ineligible on the registration list.

Under this bill, if a voter who appears on the registration list becomes ineligible to vote for any reason, he or she must be removed from the list and the Elections Commission must keep a permanent record of the removal, including the date of and reason for the removal. Consistent with current law, an individual who is removed from the registration list and subsequently becomes eligible to register to vote in Wisconsin may reregister as provided by law.

Voter citizenship audit

This bill requires the Legislative Audit Bureau to conduct an audit of the official voter registration list in the year of the bill’s enactment and in every odd-numbered year to identify registered individuals who are not U.S. citizens. The bill requires LAB to compare the information contained in the registration list with the information the Elections Commission receives from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Corrections, and the Office of Vital Records, established by the Department of Health Services. If LAB identifies registrants who are not U.S. citizens, LAB must verify the citizenship of those registrants by using the systematic alien verification for entitlements database maintained by the federal Department of Homeland Security. LAB must then notify the Elections Commission and the appropriate municipal clerks or boards of election commissioners of the individuals listed on the official registration list that LAB has identified as not being U.S. citizens.

Under the bill, the Elections Commission must send notice to each registrant identified as a noncitizen to inform the registrant that the registrant will be removed from the official registration list if he or she does not provide proof of citizenship to the commission or to the appropriate municipal clerk or board of election commissioners no later than 30 days after receiving the notice.

The bill requires the Legislative Audit Bureau to submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the legislature no later than June 30 of the odd-numbered year. The report must include the number of individuals incorrectly identified as not being U.S. citizens on the official registration list and the number of individuals correctly identified as not being U.S. citizens on the list and removed from the list.

Fees for obtaining the registration list

Under current law, the Elections Commission establishes a fee, by rule, for obtaining a copy of the official voter registration list. The fee is an amount estimated to cover both the cost of reproduction and the cost of maintaining the list at the state and local level.

Under the bill, a person may obtain a copy of the official voter registration list for Wisconsin, or any portion of the list, electronically by paying a fee of $1,000 or less as established by the commission. The bill authorizes the commission to charge an additional fee for providing a copy of the list in physical form in order to cover the cost of reproduction and postage, if any.