UW System funding allocations and grant to the Institute for Healthy Aging
Under current law, most GPR appropriated to the UW System is appropriated through a single general program operations appropriation, a biennial appropriation sometimes referred to as the UW block grant appropriation. In the 2023–25 fiscal biennium, more than a billion dollars was appropriated through this appropriation in each year of the fiscal biennium.
The bill requires the UW System to allocate from this appropriation specified amounts for particular purposes in the 2025–27 fiscal biennium. The total amount of these required allocations is approximately $8.6 million in fiscal year 2025–26 and approximately $7.5 million in fiscal year 2026–27, and the purposes include the following: increasing assistance to students who are veterans and military personnel; extending eligibility for the Health Care Provider Loan Assistance Program to new categories of health care providers; establishing or continuing foster youth programming for eligible students; funding UW-Madison’s UniverCity Alliance program; supporting journalism programs and fellowships; and funding education, training, research, and technical assistance to support small businesses, economic development, and entrepreneurial activity.
The bill also requires the UW System to award a grant from this appropriation, in the amount of $450,000 in each fiscal year of the 2025–27 fiscal biennium, to the Institute for Healthy Aging to support programs in fall prevention and recovery training.
UW Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project
Under the bill, the Board of Regents of the UW System must provide funding to the UW Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project (MIA Recovery Project) for missions to recover and identify Wisconsin veterans who are missing in action. At the conclusion of the mission for which funding is provided, the MIA Recovery Project must submit to the Board of Regents, JCF, each legislative standing committee dealing with veterans matters, the governor, DVA, and DMA a report on the mission’s findings and an accounting of expenditures for the mission. The bill allocates $500,000 in each year of the 2025–27 fiscal biennium for the MIA Recovery Project.
Grants to technical college district boards for adoption of artificial intelligence
Under current law, the TCS Board may award grants to technical college district boards in a variety of contexts, including to provide basic skills instruction in jails and prisons, to expand health care programs, and for the development of apprenticeship criteria. The bill allows the TCS Board to award grants to technical college district boards to support the district boards with the adoption and use of artificial intelligence in areas including the following: 1) educator recruitment, retention, and upskilling; 2) curriculum and resource development to meet employer demand; 3) stackable credential development; and 4) infrastructure development.
General education and cultural agencies
Library intern stipend payments
The bill requires the Division for Libraries and Technology in DPI to provide stipend payments to students who are enrolled in a library and information sciences master’s degree program and are placed as an intern in a public library or school library. The stipend payments are $2,500 per student per semester, and begin in the 2026–27 school year.
Funding for the emergency weather warning system
Under current law, the Educational Communications Board is required to operate an emergency weather warning system, the operation of which is funded from moneys received from DOA for the provision of state telecommunications to state agencies. The bill changes the funding source for the operation of the emergency weather warning system to GPR.
Operational funding for the Northern Great Lakes Center
The bill expands a segregated-funds appropriation to SHS to allow expenditures for operational support of the Northern Great Lakes Center.
Security at museum located on N. Carroll Street in Madison
Current law requires SHS to have responsibility for security at the Wisconsin Historical Museum located at 30 N. Carroll Street in Madison. The Wisconsin Historical Museum located at 30 N. Carroll Street has been demolished. The bill requires SHS to have responsibility for security at any subsequent museum located on N. Carroll Street.
ELECTIONS
Automatic voter registration
The bill requires the Elections Commission to use all feasible means to facilitate the registration of all individuals eligible to vote in this state and to maintain the registration of all registered voters for so long as they remain eligible. Under the bill, the commission must attempt to facilitate the initial registration of all eligible individuals as soon as practicable. To facilitate that initial registration, the bill directs the commission and DOT to enter into an agreement so that DOT may transfer specified personally identifying information in DOT’s records to the commission. The bill requires the commission to maintain the confidentiality of any information it obtains under the agreement and allows a driver’s license or identification card applicant to opt out of DOT’s transfer of this information to the commission.
Once the commission obtains all the information required under current law to complete an eligible individual’s registration, the commission adds the individual’s name to the statewide registration list. The bill also permits an individual whose name is added to the registration list or who wishes to permanently exclude his or her name from the list to file a request to have his or her name deleted or excluded from the list or to revoke a deletion or exclusion request previously made. In addition, the bill directs the commission to notify an individual by first class postcard whenever the commission removes his or her name from the registration list or changes his or her status on the list from eligible to ineligible.
The bill also directs the commission to report to the legislature and the governor, no later than July 1, 2027, its progress in initially registering eligible individuals under the bill. The report must contain an assessment of the feasibility and desirability of integration of registration information with information maintained by DHS, DCF, DWD, DOR, DSPS, and DNR; the UW System; and the TCS Board, as well as with the technical colleges in each technical college district.
Under current law, an eligible individual with a current and valid driver’s license or identification card issued by DOT may register to vote electronically on a secure website maintained by the commission. To register electronically under current law, an eligible individual must also authorize DOT to forward a copy of his or her electronic signature to the commission. The authorization affirms that all information provided by the individual is correct and has the same effect as a written signature on a paper copy of the registration form. Finally, current law requires the commission and DOT to enter into an agreement that permits the commission to verify the necessary registration information instantly by accessing DOT’s electronic files.
Early canvassing of absentee ballots
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 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 Wisconsin 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 who must be a policy initiatives advisor appointed in the classified service by the Elections Commission administrator.
The bill requires the office, as directed by the commission by resolution, to perform research and assist the commission’s legal staff in presenting information to the members of the commission concerning sworn complaints of election law violations, including allegations that a person provided false or misleading information to an election official during the registration or voting process, and sworn complaints alleging noncompliance with election laws and processes 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. 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 must 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 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.
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.
Petitions to complete a partial recount
Under current law, any candidate voted for at an election who is an aggrieved party may petition for a full or partial recount of the votes cast in the jurisdiction or district of the office that the candidate seeks. Current law defines an “aggrieved party” as any of the following:
1. For an election at which 4,000 or fewer votes are cast for the office that the candidate seeks, a candidate who trails the leading candidate by no more than 40 votes.
2. For an election at which more than 4,000 votes are cast for the office that the candidate seeks, a candidate who trails the leading candidate by no more than 1 percent of the total votes cast for that office.
If a candidate who is an aggrieved party petitions for a partial recount, current law provides that the opposing candidate may file a petition for an additional partial or a full recount of the wards or municipalities not subject to the initial partial recount no later than 5 p.m. two days after the initial partial recount is completed.
Under the bill, a candidate must be an aggrieved party in order to petition for an additional partial or a full recount after an initial partial recount is completed. Therefore, if, after an initial partial recount, the opposing candidate becomes an aggrieved party—i.e., the leading candidate becomes the trailing candidate—that opposing candidate may file a petition for an additional partial or a full recount. However, the bill excludes from that authorization to petition for an additional partial or full recount the candidate who filed the petition for the initial partial recount.
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 or 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 the following manner:
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.
Election administration grants
The bill requires the Elections Commission to award grants to cities, villages, and towns for election administration expenses. The bill additionally requires the commission to award up to $400,000 in grants to cities, villages, towns, and counties in the 2025–26 fiscal year for the purchase of election supplies and equipment, including electronic poll books.
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.
