New voting bill could be trying to keep parts of population from polls, says expert

Legislature rushing bill through

More changes to Wisconsin election voting rules won’t be in place by next week’s primary. But the proposed rules getting rushed through the legislature could be law by April elections.

We may be seeing the end of voter registration drives in the state. The bill would prohibit special registration deputies signing up people to vote.

“These are people like the League of Women Voters and the NAACP, but they also prohibit municipal clerks from engaging in voter-registration drives,” said Jay Heck with Wisconsin Common Cause.

Heck added the plan by lawmakers pushing the bill is to keep certain parts of the population away from the polls. The same bill would, however, allow for online voter registration in the state.  

Another change would move the deadline up for getting absentee ballots in – from the Friday after the election to the day of. 

“We can wrap up an election on election day,” Schnitzler said. “As it sits, the whole election’s in limbo until 4 o’clock on Friday,” she said with a sigh.

The new proposal says those ballots have to be in by the time polls close on election day.

The bill would also allow online voter registration, basically doing away with voter registration drives.

April elections in West Salem could be big. There’s the presidential primary and a local school referendum on the ballot, along with the normal local races.