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For the first time in 17 years, Wisconsin Democrats will have complete control over state government in 2027, and with it the ability to modify or undo many of the election laws that Republicans spent years passing.
Fresh off victory, Democrats say their plans are still in the early stages, but the party’s leaders on election policy in both legislative chambers told Votebeat that they’ll be looking carefully at the state’s entire election code, and will be quick to act on their top election administration priorities.
Rep. Lee Snodgrass and Sen. Mark Spreitzer have spent years being the Democratic point-people on election administration, sitting on legislative election committees as they developed relationships with clerks and forged policy proposals that often sat on the backburner under Republican majorities. Come early next year, they’re likely to be the most influential lawmakers on election legislation.
Both told Votebeat that a top priority will be a bill that would allow election officials to process ballots on the Monday before an election. Most states allow some early processing of absentee ballots, but Wisconsin election workers can’t begin that process until the morning of Election Day — a restriction that often delays unofficial election results, especially in high-turnout elections.
“There’s a pretty clear consensus on most of the topline things,” among Democrats, Spreitzer said. “Monday processing should be really easy.”
Spreitzer and Snodgrass both said increased election funding is another top priority, though neither offered specifics where the money would come from or where it should be directed.
Snodgrass was reluctant to discuss other election policies, saying she hasn’t hadn’t talked in depth about top priorities with her Assembly Democratic colleagues. She said, though, that bills that previously had “bipartisan support from the campaigns and election committee” could lay the groundwork for future action.
“I’m excited for the many possibilities to shore up our democracy and voter rights,” she said.
Spreitzer was more willing to discuss his priorities. In addition to those mentioned by Snodgrass, Spreitzer said he wants to expand the list of eligible photo IDs that can be used for voting, and to once more allow voters to spoil absentee ballots after returning them if they change their minds. He said he’d also entertain mandating that clerks print a minimum number of ballots — a mandate he said the state should fund.
Another top priority for Spreitzer, he said, is to repeal a law that requires election officials in municipalities that count absentee ballots at a central facility to write unique identifiers on the back of each ballot — a law that critics say risks ballot secrecy. An effort to repeal the law has had bipartisan support in the past.
Spreitzer said Democrats will likely address absentee ballot drop boxes, whose legality has swung back and forth in the courts. Drop boxes aren’t mentioned anywhere in state law, though a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for them in 2024. Spreitzer said he wants to update state law to include drop boxes, and would consider offering grants to expand drop box coverage or perhaps require cities of a certain size to make them available.
Another Democratic priority that Spreitzer wants to implement is automatic voter registration, a policy that would register eligible voters when they receive or renew a state-issued ID card or driver’s license.
Outside groups, Republicans say bipartisan legislation is important
Sam Liebert, the Wisconsin state director of All Voting is Local and a former municipal clerk, said he supports many of those proposals, including Monday processing, expanding the list of eligible IDs, and automatic voter registration.
He said he hopes there’s bipartisan buy-in to as many proposals as possible.
“We’ve just had so many ups and downs with trust and faith in our election administration system the last decade,” he said. “When you pass something that has bipartisan support, it helps everyone have more trust and faith in the process.”
Rep. Scott Krug was the Republican point-person on elections for years; he chaired the Assembly Election Committee from 2023 to 2024, and was vice chair after, and built relationships with clerks across the state.
He said that he could get on board with some Democratic priorities, like Monday processing, but encouraged Democrats to include a specific requirement in the bill for Milwaukee to follow required checklists and trainings in exchange for that extra day of ballot processing. The city has a history of Election Day errors at its absentee ballot counting facility.
Some other Democratic priorities, he said, may not survive future Republican majorities, depending on how they’re written.
For example, he said that if Democrats codify the legality of drop boxes such a law would likely only survive a future GOP majority if it included security requirements for the ballot return receptacles.
Democrats’ expanded list of eligible photo IDs may not survive either, he said.
“It all comes down to details, and that’s my worry sometimes about a caucus who’s never been in the majority before,” Krug said. “Yes, you’ve got control. You can do whatever you want, but you really got to dig deep into some of the unintended consequences of things to make sure you’re doing them right.”
Democrats pledge to include clerks in crafting policies
Clerks have long supported many of the potential proposals that Spreitzer endorsed. But, more broadly, clerks have also dreaded the idea of rapidly changing election laws that require them to learn and implement new policies.
Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood, a Republican and the co-chair of the Wisconsin County Clerks Association’s legislative outreach committee, told Votebeat that she would prefer for Democrats not to change a large number of election policies at once.
Legislators told Votebeat they would include clerks in their conversations about policies.
“We’re never, at the end of the day, going to make everybody happy,” Snodgrass said. “But the bottom line is just to make sure that everything is clear.”
Trueblood said that she has every confidence that Snodgrass and Spreitzer will work with her.
Trueblood supports some of the key Democratic priorities, like offering more election funding, Monday processing and eliminating the requirement to write unique numbers on absentee ballots.
She said she was open to other ideas mentioned by Democrats too, and may support them if changes better accommodate the realities of administering elections. Spoiling ballots after they’ve been cast, for example, could only work if the deadline to do so came prior to Election Day, she said.
Liebert noted there was a “ticking clock” between now and the 2028 presidential election two years from now. It would help the state’s 1,850 municipal clerks if legislators passed new policies sooner than later, he said.
“We want to make sure that clerks at the county and the municipal level are prepared and trained and have adjusted for any changes,” he said.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Alexander at ashur@votebeat.org.
