Under current law, absentee ballots may not be canvassed until election day. The bill authorizes a municipal clerk or municipal board of election commissioners to begin the canvassing of absentee ballots on the day before an election, subject to the following requirements:
1. The municipality must use automatic tabulating equipment to process absentee ballots.
2. Prior to the early canvassing of absentee ballots, the municipal clerk or municipal board of election commissioners must notify the Elections Commission in writing and must consult with the Elections Commission concerning administration of early canvassing of absentee ballots.
3. Early canvassing of absentee ballots under the bill may be conducted only between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on the day before the election, and ballots may not be tallied until after polls close on election day.
4. Members of the public must have the same right of access to a place where absentee ballots are being canvassed as early as is provided under current law for canvassing absentee ballots on election day.
5. When not in use, automatic tabulating equipment used for canvassing absentee ballots and the areas where the programmed media and the absentee ballots are housed must be secured with tamper-evident security seals in a double-lock location such as a locked cabinet inside a locked office.
6. Subject to criminal penalty, no person may act in any manner that would give him or her the ability to know or to provide information on the accumulating or final results from the ballots canvassed early under the bill before the close of the polls on election day.
7. Certain notices must be provided before each election at which the municipality intends to canvass absentee ballots on the day before the election.
Residency requirement for voting
Under current law, with limited exceptions, an otherwise eligible voter must be a resident of this state and of the municipality and ward, if any, where the voter is voting for 28 days before an election in order to vote in the election in that municipality and ward. The bill shortens that residency requirement from 28 days to 10 days.
Voting absentee in person
Current law allows an individual to complete an absentee ballot in person no earlier than 14 days preceding the election and no later than the Sunday preceding the election. The bill eliminates the 14-day restriction on how soon a person may complete an absentee ballot in person.
Voter bill of rights
The bill creates a voter bill of rights that municipal clerks and boards of election commissioners must post at each polling place. The bill of rights informs voters that they have the right to do all of the following:
1. Vote if registered and eligible to vote.
2. Inspect a sample ballot before voting.
3. Cast a ballot if in line when the polling place closes or, if voting by in-person absentee ballot on the last day for which such voting is allowed, when the municipal clerk’s office closes.
4. Cast a secret ballot.
5. Get help casting a ballot if disabled.
6. Get help voting in a language other than English as provided by law.
7. Get a new ballot, up to three ballots in all, if the voter makes a mistake on the ballot.
8. Cast a provisional ballot as provided by law.
9. Have the voter’s ballot counted accurately.
10. Vote free from coercion or intimidation.
11. Report any illegal or fraudulent election activity.
Office of Election Transparency and Compliance
The bill creates under the Elections Commission the Office of Election Transparency and Compliance. The office is under the direction and supervision of a director appointed in the classified service by the commission administrator.
The bill requires the office, as directed by the commission by resolution, to provide assistance and research to the commission concerning sworn complaints of election law violations, including violations by election officials. The bill further requires the office to provide assistance and research to the commission with respect to the following, as directed by the commission administrator:
1. Procedures at polling places.
2. Election processes.
3. Audits of election systems and equipment, including with respect to accessibility requirements for individuals with disabilities.
4. Responding to public records requests.
5. Responding to legislative inquiries and requests for assistance.
6. Responding to inquiries from the public.
Voter registration in high schools
Prior to 2011 Wisconsin Act 240, state law required that all public high schools be used for voter registration for enrolled students and members of the high school staff. Prior law also authorized voter registration to take place at a private high school or a tribal school that operates high school grades if requested by the principal. The bill reinstates those provisions. Under the bill, the municipal clerk must notify the school board of each school district in which the municipality is located that high schools will be used for voter registration. The school board and the clerk then appoint at least one qualified voter at each high school to be a special school registration deputy. The bill allows students and staff to register at the school on any day that classes are regularly held. The deputies promptly forward the registration forms to the clerk and the clerk adds qualified voters to the registration list. The clerk may reject a registration form, but the clerk must notify the registrant and inform the registrant of the reason for being rejected. Under the bill, a form completed by an individual who will be 18 years of age before the next election and who is otherwise qualified to vote must be filed in such a way so that the individual is automatically registered to vote when the individual is 18.
Finally, the bill allows a principal of a private high school or tribal school that operates high school grades to request that the municipal clerk appoint a qualified voter at the school to be a special school registration deputy. Under the bill, the clerk must appoint a special school registration deputy if the clerk determines that the private high school or tribal school has a substantial number of students residing in the municipality.
Proof of identification for voting
Current law allows an individual to use as voter identification an unexpired identification card issued by a technical college, college, or university in this state if the card meets certain criteria. The card must have an expiration date that is no later than two years after the date it was issued, and the individual must establish proof of enrollment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit held that the requirement to present both an unexpired identification card and proof of enrollment had no rational basis and was therefore unconstitutional. See, Luft v. Evers, 963 F.3d 665 (2020). The bill allows a student to use an expired student identification card under certain circumstances. Under the bill, a student does not need to present proof of enrollment if using an unexpired identification card, but must provide proof of enrollment if using an expired identification card. In addition, the bill requires each technical college in this state and each UW System institution to issue student identification cards that meet the criteria to be used as voter identification no later than August 1, 2023.
Current law also allows an individual to use as voter identification an identification card issued by DOT. DOT may issue a receipt as a temporary identification card to use for voting and other purposes to an individual who is waiting for the permanent card. The receipt expires in 60 days. The bill extends the expiration date to 180 days.
Special elections to fill vacancies in the office of U.S. senator and representative in congress
Under current law, a vacancy in the office of U.S. senator or representative in Congress occurring prior to the second Tuesday in April in the year of the general election must be filled at a special primary and special election. A vacancy occurring in one of these offices between the second Tuesday in April and the second Tuesday in May in the year of the general election is filled at the partisan primary and general election.
Current law provides that a special primary be held four weeks before the day of the special election. However, if the election is held on the same day as the spring election, the special primary is held concurrently with the spring primary. Under current law, with regard to an election for a national office, the period between a special primary and special election or between the spring primary and spring election does not provide sufficient time to canvass and certify the primary results and prepare ballots to send to overseas voters as required by federal law.
Under the bill, a vacancy in the office of U.S. senator or representative in Congress is filled in one of the following manners:
1. At a special election to be held on the third Tuesday in May following the first day of the vacancy with a special primary to be held concurrently with the spring primary on the third Tuesday in February.
2. At a special election to be held on the second Tuesday in August following the first day of the vacancy with a special primary to be held on the third Tuesday in May.
3. At a special election to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November following the first day of the vacancy with a special primary to be held on the second Tuesday in August.
However, under the bill, a November special election is not held in any year in which the general election is held for that office; instead, the vacancy is filled at the partisan primary and general election.
Reimbursement of counties and municipalities for certain election costs
The bill requires the Elections Commission to reimburse counties and municipalities for certain costs incurred in the administration of special primaries and special elections for state or national office. A cost is eligible for reimbursement only if certain conditions are met, including that the commission determines the cost is reasonable and the rate paid by the county or municipality for the cost does not exceed the rate customarily paid for similar costs at a primary or election that is not a special primary or election. Under the bill, only the following costs may be reimbursed:
1. Rental payments for polling places.
2. Election day wages paid to election officials working at the polls.
3. Costs for the publication of required election notices.
4. Printing and postage costs for absentee ballots and envelopes.
5. Costs for the design and printing of ballots and poll books.
6. Purchase of ballot bags or containers, including ties or seals for chain of custody purposes.
7. Costs to program electronic voting machines.
8. Purchase of memory devices for electronic voting machines.
9. Wages paid to conduct a county canvass.
10. Data entry costs for the statewide voter registration system.
Grants for the purchase of election supplies and equipment
The bill authorizes the Elections Commission to award grants to counties and municipalities for the purchase of election supplies and equipment, including electronic poll books.
Appropriation for clerk training
Current law appropriates money annually from the general fund to the Elections Commission for training county and municipal clerks concerning voter identification requirements. The bill expands this appropriation to authorize expenditures for training county and municipal clerks for the administration of elections generally.
Recount fees
Current law requires the Elections Commission to reimburse the counties for the actual costs of conducting a recount. The reimbursement comes from the fees that the commission collects from the person that filed the recount petition. The bill changes the appropriation for reimbursing the counties from an annual appropriation to a continuing appropriation.
EMINENT DOMAIN
Condemnation authority for nonmotorized paths
The bill allows certain entities, such as a county board, village board, or DOT, to use the power of condemnation to acquire land or interests in land for the purpose of establishing or extending recreational trails, bicycle ways or lanes, or pedestrian ways. Current law prohibits the exercise of condemnation power to acquire land or interests in land for those purposes.
EMPLOYMENT
Employment regulation
Minimum wage increase
The bill annually raises the minimum wage to be paid to most employees, from the effective date of the bill through January 1, 2027. After that date, the bill requires DWD to determine the percentage difference between the consumer price index for the preceding 12-month period and the consumer price index for the 12 months before the preceding 12-month period, adjust the minimum wages then in effect by that percentage difference, and publish that amount in the Wisconsin Administrative Register and on the DWD website.
The bill requires the secretary of workforce development to establish a committee to study options to achieve a $15 per hour minimum wage and other options to increase compensation for workers in this state. Under the bill, the committee consists of nine members, with five appointed by the governor, and one each appointed by the speaker of the assembly, the assembly minority leader, the senate majority leader, and the senate minority leader. The committee is required to submit a report containing its recommendations for options to achieve a $15 per hour minimum wage and other options to increase compensation to the governor and the appropriate standing committees of the legislature no later than October 1, 2024.
Collective bargaining for state and local employees; employee rights
Under current law, state and local governments are prohibited from collectively bargaining with employees except as expressly provided in the statutes. Current law allows certain protective occupation participants under the Wisconsin Retirement System, known as public safety employees, and certain municipal transit employees to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment. Under current law, other state and municipal employees may collectively bargain only over a percentage increase in base wages that does not exceed the percentage increase in the consumer price index. In addition, under current law, the Employment Relations Commission assigns employees to collective bargaining units, but current law requires that public safety employees and municipal transit employees be placed in separate collective bargaining units.
The bill adds frontline workers to the groups that may collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment. In the bill, “frontline workers” are state or municipal employees with regular job duties that include interacting with members of the public or with large populations of people or that directly involve the maintenance of public works. Under the bill, the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) determines which state and municipal employees meet the criteria. Also, the bill allows WERC to place in the same collective bargaining unit both frontline workers and employees who are not frontline workers. If WERC places employees of both types in a collective bargaining unit, the entire collective bargaining unit is treated as if all members are frontline workers and all members may collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment.
Under current law, state or municipal employees in a collective bargaining unit elect their representative. The representative for a unit containing public safety employees or transit employees requires the support of the majority of the employees who are voting in the election, and the representative for a unit containing other employees requires the support of the majority of all of the employees who are in the collective bargaining unit. Under the bill, the representative for any collective bargaining unit containing any state or municipal employees requires the support of the majority of the employees who are voting in the election regardless of the number of employees who are in the collective bargaining unit.
Under current law, WERC must conduct an annual election to certify each representative of a collective bargaining unit representing state or municipal employees who are not public safety employees or transit employees. At the election, if a representative fails to receive at least 51 percent of the votes of all of the members of the collective bargaining unit, the representative is decertified and the employees are unrepresented. The bill eliminates this annual recertification process.
The bill requires state and municipal employers to consult about wages, hours, and conditions of employment with their employees who are not public safety employees, transit employees, or frontline workers. The employers must consult either when policy changes that affect wages, hours, or conditions are proposed or implemented or, in the absence of policy changes, at least quarterly.
The bill adds that employees of authorities, such as the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority, WHEDA, and WEDC, may collectively bargain as state employees.
Eliminating the right-to-work law
Current law prohibits a person from requiring, as a condition of obtaining or continuing employment, an individual to refrain or resign from membership in a labor organization, to become or remain a member of a labor organization, to pay dues or other charges to a labor organization, or to pay any other person an amount that is in place of dues or charges required of members of a labor organization. The bill repeals these prohibitions and the associated misdemeanor offense.
The bill also explicitly provides that, when an all-union agreement is in effect, it is not an unfair labor practice to encourage or discourage membership in a labor organization or to deduct labor organization dues or assessments from an employee’s earnings. The bill sets conditions under which an employer may enter into an all-union agreement. The bill also sets conditions for the continuation or termination of all-union agreements, including that, if WERC determines there is reasonable ground to believe employees in an all-union agreement have changed their attitude about the agreement, WERC is required to conduct a referendum to determine whether the employees wish to continue the agreement. WERC is required to terminate an all-union agreement if it finds the union unreasonably refused to admit an employee into the union.
Prevailing wage
The bill requires that laborers, workers, mechanics, and truck drivers employed on the site of certain projects of public works be paid the prevailing wage and not be required or allowed to work a greater number of hours per day and per week than the prevailing hours of labor unless they are paid overtime for all hours worked in excess of the prevailing hours of labor. Projects subject to the bill include state and local projects of public works, including state highway projects, with exceptions including projects below certain cost thresholds, minor service or maintenance work, and certain residential projects. Under the bill, “prevailing wage rate” is defined as the hourly basic rate of pay, plus the hourly contribution for bona fide economic benefits, paid for a majority of the hours worked in a trade or occupation in the area in which the project is located, except that, if there is no rate at which a majority of those hours is paid, “prevailing wage rate” means the average hourly basic rate of pay, plus the average hourly contribution for bona fide economic benefits, paid for the highest-paid 51 percent of hours worked in a trade or occupation in the area. “Prevailing hours of labor” is defined as 10 hours per day and 40 hours per week, excluding weekends and holidays. The bill requires DWD to conduct investigations and hold public hearings as necessary to define the trades or occupations that are commonly employed on projects that are subject to the prevailing wage law and to inform itself of the prevailing wage rates in all areas of the state for those trades or occupations, in order to determine the prevailing wage rate for each trade or occupation. The bill contains certain other provisions regarding the calculation of prevailing wage rates by DWD, including provisions allowing persons to request recalculations or reviews of the prevailing wage rates determined by DWD.
The bill requires contracts and notices for bids for projects subject to the bill to include and incorporate provisions ensuring compliance with the requirements. The bill also establishes a requirement that state agencies and local governments post prevailing wage rates and hours of labor in areas readily accessible to persons employed on the project or in sites regularly used for posting notices.
The bill makes a contractor that fails to pay the prevailing wage rate or overtime pay to an employee as required under the prevailing wage law liable to the affected employee for not only the amount of unpaid wages and overtime pay, but also for liquidated damages in an amount equal to 100 percent of the unpaid wages and overtime pay.
