Applying for and returning absentee ballots; use of central counting locations; election night reporting; court determinations of incompetency and ineligibility to vote; preelection tests of electronic voting equipment, and providing a penalty. (FE)

Absentee ballot certificate defects Under current law, a municipal clerk may return to the voter an absentee ballot with an improperly completed certificate or with no certificate whenever time permits the voter to correct the defect and return the absentee ballot to the polling place before 8 p.m. on election day. Under the bill, the municipal clerk must return such an absentee ballot to the voter under those circumstances.

Absentee ballot request and return confirmation Current law allows a voter to receive an absentee ballot by making a written application by means of facsimile transmission or electronic mail. Under the bill, if a voter makes a written application by electronic mail and submits his or her mobile telephone number with the application, after the voter completes and submits the application, the electronic application system maintained by the Elections Commission must automatically notify the voter by text message that his or her application has been received. In addition, under the bill, after the voter completes and returns his or her ballot, the system must automatically notify the voter by text message that his or her ballot has been received. The bill provides that all mobile telephone numbers submitted for the purposes provided under the bill are confidential.

Under the bill, information concerning such text message notifications must be included in the type E notice, which the municipal clerk must publish in advance of each election. The type E notice provides information to voters concerning voting by absentee ballot. The bill also requires that the type E notice be published on the municipality’s website if it has one.

Absentee ballot application deadline Under current law, if a voter applies for an absentee ballot by mail, the application must be received by the municipal clerk no later than 5 p.m. on the fifth day immediately preceding the election. This bill changes that deadline to the seventh day immediately preceding the election.

Election night reporting Under the bill, at 10 p.m. on election night, and every hour thereafter until the canvass is complete, each municipal clerk or his or her designee must provide to the county clerk of the county in which the municipality is located a statement that shows the total number of ballots, including absentee ballots, cast at the municipality in the election, the total number of ballots, including absentee ballots, that have been canvassed, and the total number of ballots, including absentee ballots, that remain to be canvassed. The county clerk must promptly post each statement on the website on which the county clerk posts returns on election night. In a municipality having a municipal board of election commissioners (currently, only the city of Milwaukee), the municipal board of election commissioners must also post the statement on the website maintained by the municipal board of election commissioners. The statement may not include the names or addresses of any electors.

Court determinations of incompetency and ineligibility to vote Under current law, no person who is incapable of understanding the objective of the elective process or who is under a guardianship may vote unless a court has determined that the person is competent to vote. Current law also allows any voter in a municipality to petition a circuit court to determine whether a person residing in the municipality is incapable of understanding the objective of the elective process. If the court determines that the person is incapable of such understanding, the person is not eligible to register to vote or to vote. Current law requires the clerk of the circuit court to communicate the court’s determinations, in writing, to the election officials who are responsible for determining challenges to registration and voting that may be brought against the person.

The bill requires the circuit court to notify the Elections Commission, by email, of the court’s determination regarding incompetency and ineligibility to register to vote or to vote. Under the bill, when the commission receives a determination of incompetency and ineligibility to register to vote or to vote, the commission must, within three business days, change the status of the voter subject to the determination to inactive on the official voter registration list, note on the list that the voter is ineligible to register to vote or to vote, and notify the voter and the voter’s municipal clerk of the voter’s change in status. The bill also provides that if a court reviews a determination of incompetency and ineligibility to vote and restores the voter’s right to vote, upon receipt of that determination by email, the commission must, within three business days, notify the voter that the voter is eligible to vote and that the voter is required to complete a new registration to vote if the voter intends to vote. Under the bill, the clerk must examine the registration list before issuing a ballot to any voter.

Use of central counting locations Under current law, votes are canvassed at the polling place on election day, except that any municipality where an electronic voting system is used may elect to adjourn the canvass to a central counting location where all votes cast in the municipality may be counted on election day. The bill eliminates the option for municipalities to use such central counting locations.

Preelection tests of electronic voting equipment Current law requires the municipal clerk of each municipality that employs an electronic voting system that uses automatic tabulating equipment at a polling place or a central count location to conduct a public test of the equipment not more than 10 days before an election. Under the bill, the municipal clerk is required to conduct that test not more than 15 days before the election.

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.