SB 1043

Legislative district residency

Under the Wisconsin Constitution, no person is eligible to be elected to the senate or assembly unless the person is a qualified elector in the senate or assembly district the person is elected to represent. To be a qualified elector in the legislative district, the legislator must be a resident of that district. Under current law, any individual who believes that a person elected to the legislature is not a resident of the district the person was elected to represent may file a verified complaint making such allegation with the attorney general. If the attorney general, upon investigation, finds sufficient reason to believe that the subject person does not reside in the legislative district to which he or she was elected, the attorney general may commence an action for a writ of quo warranto to have the subject person’s office declared vacant. For a legislative office declared vacant by the court, the clerk of court must transmit a copy of the judgment to the presiding officer of the appropriate house, and the house must determine whether the person is qualified to be seated or whether a vacancy exists.

This bill establishes additional procedures and requirements with respect to legislative district residency.

First, at the beginning of each biennial session, and annually while holding office, each person elected to the legislature must file with the Legislative Reference Bureau and the chief clerk of the house to which the person is elected (1) a statement, sworn under oath, certifying that the person is a resident of the district he or she was elected to represent and (2) copies of two different identifying documents that may be used to establish proof of residence for voter registration purposes, such as a driver’s license, property tax bill, or lease. No later than 10 days after a person elected to the legislature changes his or her residence, he or she must notify the LRB and the chief clerk of the house to which the person is elected of the change in residence and must file a sworn statement and copies of identifying documents establishing proof of residence for the new residence. Any person elected to the legislature who fails to satisfy those requirements is subject to the investigation and quo warranto process provided under current law. The LRB or chief clerk must notify the attorney general of any such violation.

Additionally, the bill establishes a separate quo warranto process for alleged violations of legislative residency requirements under certain circumstances. Under the bill, if the LRB or the chief clerk of the house to which a person is elected has credible evidence that a person elected to the legislature does not reside in the district he or she was elected to represent, the LRB or chief clerk must immediately transmit that evidence to the attorney general and the Elections Commission. If, upon receiving such evidence, the attorney general finds probable cause to believe that the subject person is not qualified to hold his or her office because of failure to meet the legislative district residency requirement, the attorney general must immediately commence an action for a writ of quo warranto to have the subject person’s office declared vacant. The attorney general must make a determination as to probable cause no later than 30 days after receiving evidence transmitted by the LRB or the chief clerk.

If the attorney general fails to commence such an action for quo warranto, any elector of the district to which the subject person was elected may commence an action for a writ of quo warranto to have the subject person’s office declared vacant. A declaration by a court under this alternate quo warranto process that a legislative office is vacant creates a vacancy in that office for all purposes.

Finally, the bill provides that if the LRB, chief clerks, attorney general, Elections Commission, or courts possess a record received pursuant to the bill’s provisions that contains the residential address of a person elected to the legislature, that record must remain confidential and is exempt from inspection and copying under the public records law.

Elector residency

Under current law, for purposes of qualifying as an elector of a particular district, the residence of a person “is the place where the person’s habitation is fixed, without any present intent to move, and to which, when absent, the person intends to return.” The bill changes that residency standard to the following: “The residence of a person is the place where the person’s principal or primary home or place of abode is located, where the person’s habitation is fixed, without any present intent to move, and to which, when absent, the person has the present intent to return.”