Name: Evers calls for expanding early voting, seeks to let clerks count absentee ballots before election day
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Evers calls for expanding early voting, seeks to let clerks count absentee ballots before election day

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Milwaukee Journal SentinelMADISON -&nbsp;Gov. Tony Evers' state budget would expand early voting, allow clerks to count absentee ballots before election day and require a voter bill of rights to be posted at every polling station.The Democratic governor's comes after the coronavirus pandemic upended elections in 2020. Republicans who control the Legislature have and are likely to toss out many of the voting proposals from Evers.&nbsp;Evers wants to allow local officials to decide when early voting should begin, instead of limiting it to the two weeks before election day. Republicans put the early voting limits in place years ago, saying they wanted to make sure large communities don't start early voting well before rural areas.&nbsp;Evers is seeking to add a provision to state law that would require polling stations to post notices telling people they have a number of rights, including the right to vote if eligible, review a sample ballot before voting, cast a secret ballot, get assistance if they are disabled and report illegal activity. The notices would also have to alert people that they are allowed to vote if they are in line before the polls close.&nbsp;Evers wants to allow clerks to count absentee ballots on the day before election day if they want. Clerks have long asked for that authority, saying it would have .Under Evers' plan, clerks could count absentee ballots between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. the day before election day as long as they used automatic tabulating machines. Members of the public would be allowed to watch the process, just as they can observe voting at the polls.While the ballots could be fed into the tabulating machines the day before the election, the results could not be tallied until after the election. That's meant to ensure no one knows the results of the early vote before the polls close on election day. Checking the results in advance would be a crime.Republican lawmakers are split on whether to allow the early counting of absentee ballots and, if so, how to do it.&nbsp;Evers also wants to allow people to vote from a polling precinct as long as they have lived there for at least 10 days. The state long had a 10-day requirement, but Republican lawmakers lengthened it to 28 days.&nbsp; would tweak the state's voter ID law to put it in line with a recent court decision. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals because it requires those who use college IDs to vote to also present separate proof of enrollment.&nbsp;Evers' plan would drop the requirement that students using current college IDs provide proof of enrollment. In addition, his plan in&nbsp;some cases would allow students to use expired IDs for voting, just as other voters can use expired driver's licenses for voting.&nbsp;The governor would require state technical colleges and University of Wisconsin System schools to ensure they issue IDs that are valid for voting purposes.&nbsp;The governor also wants to change how special elections are scheduled. State and federal law conflict over when some primaries for special elections can occur, making it difficult to comply with both laws for federal offices. Evers found that out in 2019&nbsp;when he called a special election for a congressional seat in northern Wisconsin&nbsp;— only to because his initial plan violated the federal election law.&nbsp;Evers' new schedule would allow more time between primaries and special elections to ensure military and overseas voters had more time to return absentee ballots, as the federal law requires.The governor is also seeking to establish automatic voter registration, following the example of some other states that place people on the voter rolls as soon as they turn 18 or move to the state, provided they are eligible to vote.&nbsp;&nbsp;Under Evers' budget, early voting would end on the Friday before election day — sooner than current law, which allows early voting through the Sunday before election day. That provision was drafted in error and the governor wants to allow early voting until the Sunday before election day, according to the governor's office.Contact&nbsp;Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow&nbsp;him on Twitter at .

Milwaukee Journal SentinelMADISON -&nbsp;Gov. Tony Evers' state budget would expand early voting, allow clerks to count absentee ballots before election day and require a voter bill of rights to be posted at every polling station.The Democratic governor's comes after the coronavirus pandemic upended elections in 2020. Republicans who control the Legislature have and are likely to toss out many of the voting proposals from Evers.&nbsp;Evers wants to allow local officials to decide when early voting should begin, instead of limiting it to the two weeks before election day. Republicans put the...

Evers calls for expanding early voting, seeks to let clerks count absentee ballots before election day

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