LRBs0132/1
MPG&JK:cdc
2019 - 2020 LEGISLATURE
SENATE SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 1,
TO SENATE BILL 574
January 7, 2020 - Offered by Senator LeMahieu.
SB574-SSA1,1,3
1An Act to amend 5.84 (1), 5.86 (1), 6.15 (4) (b), 6.86 (1) (b), 6.87 (6), 6.88 (1), 6.88
2(3) (a) and 7.52 (1) (a); and
to create 6.91, 7.52 (10) and 7.525 of the statutes;
3relating to: early canvassing of absentee ballots and providing a penalty.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Under current law, absentee ballots may not be canvassed until election day.
This bill authorizes a municipality to adopt an ordinance providing for 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 enacting an ordinance under the bill, the municipal clerk or
municipal board of election commissioners must notify the Elections Commission in
writing of the proposed enactment and must consult with the Elections Commission
concerning administration of early canvassing of absentee ballots. The ordinance
may not take effect without the approval of the Elections Commission.
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.
Under the bill, if a municipality passes an ordinance authorizing the early
canvassing of absentee ballots, the municipal clerk or municipal board of election
commissioners may elect to canvass ballots early for any particular election, except
as otherwise provided in the ordinance.
Because this bill creates a new crime or revises a penalty for an existing crime,
the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties may be requested to prepare a
report.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do
enact as follows: