by Benjamin Yount
There’s growing support among Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol to do something about the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, on Wednesday said he’s fed up with the Commission and its response to the questions about last year’s election.
“Today’s meeting of the Wisconsin Elections Commission leaves little doubt that the current commissioners and agency administrator are simply not interested or capable of coming into compliance with the findings of the [Legislative Audit Bureau] audit or provisions of state law,” Nass said in a statement Wednesday.
The Elections Commission met for 11 hours Wednesday. In response to that audit, commissioners approved creating new rules for ballot drop boxes and creating new rules for “curing” ballots. Commissioners generally dismissed the audit, which found 30 instances where the Commission didn’t follow Wisconsin’s election laws.
Nass said if the Commission won’t agree to follow the law, then lawmakers may have to force them.
“The lack of knowledge regarding state law, in particular by the administrator, is either an intentional omission or pure incompetence,” Nass said. “It would appear that the legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) will likely have to urgently act to exercise its authority under the law to force compliance of the Wisconsin Elections Commission with state law or cease issuing inappropriate directives on state election procedures.”
Nass is one of the co-chairs of the JCRAR.
Beyond the incompetence he says he sees at the Commission, Nass said the reluctance from elections commissioners to acknowledge their failures means he cannot trust them.
“The voters of Wisconsin should have no confidence in the Wisconsin Elections Commission or its actions as being fair or in compliance with state law,” Nass added.
Nass is not saying when the rules committee could act. JCRAR last met on Tuesday, the committee is not set to meet again for the rest of the year.
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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Election Day” by Phil Roeder CC BY 2.0.
