Everything You Need To Know About Democrat Gov. Tony Evers’ Bid To Overhaul Wisconsin Elections
Democrat Gov. Tony Evers proposed a series of changes to Wisconsin’s election laws on Monday as part of his new budget proposal, and predictably, they do nothing to enhance the integrity of the state’s electoral process — quite the opposite.
Among the several changes included in Evers’ 2023-2025 budget proposal is the creation of an automatic voter registration system, which would use data from the Department of Transportation to auto-add “eligible” Wisconsinites to the state’s voter rolls. To accomplish this, the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which infamously broke numerous state laws in the 2020 election, would be granted $172,000 in taxpayer funds to “facilitate the initial registration of all eligible electors,” while another $349,000 would be doled out to the state’s DOT to “address one-time costs” associated with the new system, according to an Evers press release.
Despite proclamations from Democrats that automatic voter registration is a win for democracy, analyses of the system have shown it to be ripe for human error, such as the entering of incorrect voter information by inexperienced DMV officials and the registration of non-U.S. citizens. In fact, Evers has already advocated for the DOT to issue driver’s licenses to noncitizens, which would make erroneous noncitizen registrations even more likely if that push by the governor is successful in the future.
In 2019, Evers introduced a budget with a provision seeking to make noncitizens eligible for state-issued driver’s licenses, with the Democrat governor baselessly claiming such a policy would make Wisconsin’s “roads and … communities safer.” The state’s Republican-controlled legislature ultimately rejected the proposal.
Evers’ new budget proposal also seeks to mandate that all public, private, and tribal high schools “offer voter registration for enrolled students and staff” and shorten the amount of time a Wisconsin resident must live in a locality in order to vote. The former proposition is just one example of the ongoing nationwide push by Democrats to increase their political prospects among young and soon-to-be-eligible voters.
According to Evers’ press release, the governor is furthermore calling for the creation of an Office of Election Transparency and Compliance, which, if approved by the state legislature, would receive $2 million over the next two years and be “provided resources to improve audits on voting equipment, databases, and potentially hire an outside contractor to review certain information, such as voter lists.” While Evers’ administration says the purpose of the new office is to “better and more quickly respond to inquiries and complaints regarding potential election law violations,” recent actions by corrupt agencies such as the Department of Justice demonstrate how these bloated bureaucracies give cover for leftist activists to interfere in the electoral process on behalf of Democrats.
Evers’ efforts to install Democrat-supported policies into Wisconsin’s election systems aren’t surprising, especially given his vetoing of Republican-backed election-integrity legislation throughout his time in office. Over the past two years, for instance, the Democrat governor has vetoed two separate bills that sought to ban private funding of election offices by nongovernmental organizations.
In the lead-up to the 2020 election, nonprofits such as the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) poured hundreds of millions of dollars into government election offices in battleground states, which were used to expand non-secure election protocols such as mail-in voting and the use of ballot drop boxes. According to figures from the Capital Research Center, these “Zuckbucks” were heavily skewed toward Democrat-majority counties, essentially making it a massive Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.
Groups such as CTCL are already preparing to use similar tactics to interfere in the 2024 election, this time under the guise of an $80 million initiative known as the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence. While the alliance purports to be a “nonpartisan” venture, a report from the Honest Elections Project and John Locke Foundation revealed it to be a concentrated effort among left-wing groups to “systematically influence every aspect of election administration” through the use of private funds and election-related services.
As a result of Evers’ veto of Wisconsin Republicans’ “Zuckbucks” bans, the Badger State’s future elections will be ripe for such outside influence.
Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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