State lawmakers are considering whether to move citizens seeking to observe polling places and recounts closer to the action ahead of the hotly contested 2024 election.
Both legislators and the Wisconsin Elections Commission are set to consider requirements for election observers, or people who are able to watch the voting or ballot counting process, either on their own accord or on behalf of a political party or good government group.
The issue is a tricky one, elections officials say, as observers are allowed under state law. But amid a contentious political environment, some worry that having citizens so close to poll workers or voters will lead to intimidation.
In 2022, the Elections Commission deadlocked on allowing observers within 3 feet of the table at polling places where voters identify themselves and their address. Current state law requires observers to be located between 3 and 8 feet away.
Legislators are considering a bill, however, to do away with the existing requirements and require observers be allowed to stand within 3 feet of voters. The proposal also would require observers be granted uniform access to watch any part of the election process, including recounts.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump argued they were not able to see ballots being handled during a recount of the 2020 presidential elections in Milwaukee and Dane counties. Elections officials countered that those observers hindered and delayed the recount process.
Rep. Paul Tittl, R-Manitowoc, argued it was difficult to adequately see and hear what is going on if a person is 8 feet away, at one point stepping away from the table he was testifying at to illustrate the distance at issue.
“You can’t see anything at 8 feet,” Tittl told the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections Tuesday. “I have brand new glasses and I can’t see anything at 8 feet. If you’re an observer you should be able to observe. That’s the whole process.”
Tittl noted he observed elections in 2022 in Milwaukee and was treated well by poll workers, while being stationed only 3 feet from voters. But not every polling place treated observers that well, proponents of the bill said.
Tom Sylke, a Milwaukee attorney who worked for Trump during the 2020 recount, said voters were misinformed that the voting process should be private.
“The voting process is a public process. You don’t have a right to privacy when you go into a polling place,” he said. “The content of your vote, how you cast your ballot, the people for whom you vote, that is private. The process is not and the public needs transparency.”
But there are fears that the small size of some polling places might mean poll workers would be forced to position observers closer than the 3-foot maximum, just because of how a room might be designed.
Putting observers and poll workers in tight corners raised concerns from local clerks.
Rock County Clerk Lisa Tollefson recalled a scenario where poll workers threatened to summarily quit because of an observer leaning over their shoulder “like a parrot.”
"We absolutely will be losing good poll workers by doing this,” Green County Clerk Arianna Voegeli said.
Currently, the chief official at a polling place can ask an observer to leave if they are being disruptive and can limit the number of observers if they show up at a single voting location en masse.
The bill would make violating the bill's provisions a crime, subject to 90 days in a county jail or a $1,000 fine.
“I’m very disinclined to volunteer to work in an election if I know that somebody might accuse me or confuse something that I've done as being in error,” said Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton. “I don't want to spend 90 days in Outagamie County Jail and pay $1,000.”
In 2021, Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a narrower version of the bill, which would have applied only to recount activities.
Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, chair of the Assembly committee, noted the bill may need to be tweaked, with a 3- to 6-foot range suggested as a possible compromise.
Meanwhile, the Elections Commission is also again taking a closer look at the issue. The commission voted last year to embark on a process of re-thinking the state’s observer rules.
But last month the commission once again was split on how far those regulations should go. Currently, only media members are allowed to record video or photos at a polling place, a status not afforded election observers.
The three Republican-appointed commissioners wanted to better define who is or is not media at a polling place. But the Democrat-appointed members wanted to instead leave the matter to the Legislature.
The commission is set to once again consider the updated regulations at a hearing on Thursday, this time with tweaks to clarify that media members are distinct from observers and do not have to be located so close to voters.
