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Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a series of bills passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature on Tuesday that would have imposed new restrictions on mail-in ballots in the Key state of the battlefield.
The Democrat also said two Wisconsin counties should not comply with subpoenas to hand over ballots and voting materials in an investigation by the Republican leader of the Assembly elections committee .
“Hell no,” Evers said when asked if local election clerks had to comply. “You’ve seen what’s going on in Arizona. It’s a clown show.”
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Wisconsin’s bills and ongoing inquiries are part of a nationwide push by Conservatives to reshape elections and voting after President Donald Trump narrowly lost a second term to Democrat Joe Biden. Evers’ veto came as Republicans in Texas moved closer to building a quorum to pass the vote changes blocked by Democrats fleeing the state.
Republicans in Wisconsin do not have enough votes to override Evers’ veto. No Democrats have backed the legislation passed in June.
Republican Senate Speaker Chris Kapenga said the bills would have protected the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections. He said the vetoes made the elections less “precise, transparent and secure”.
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Biden beat Trump by just under 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. Many state and federal lawsuits brought by Trump and his allies after the defeat have been dismissed.
Still, Republicans in Wisconsin have approved a review of the 2020 election by the non-partisan Legislative Audit Office and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has authorized a separate investigation led by a former Supreme Court justice of the United States. ‘State. State Representative Janel Brandtjen, who heads the Assembly’s Election Commission, is also continuing her own “cyber-legal” review of the results, with subpoenas to election clerks in two counties demanding that they hand over the results. ballots and voting materials.
Evers said he expected the subpoenas to be debated in court.
“It’s a ridiculous effort to bring our democracy to a new low,” Evers said of attempts by Republicans in Arizona, Wisconsin and other states to conduct forensic audits of Trump’s defeat in the November 2020 election. “We have had a fair, free and secure election and Joe Biden is our president. … People need to understand that this election is over.”
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Evers called the bills he vetoed “undemocratic,” saying they make it harder for people to vote, especially the elderly and people with disabilities. He vetoed bills in the Capitol Rotunda, surrounded by Democrats and disability advocates. Republicans argued the proposals were necessary to ensure clean elections.
One of the bills that Evers vetoed reportedly required that most indefinitely confined elderly and disabled people – unable to go to the polls on their own – present photo ID to vote by. correspondence. These voters should request a ballot every year, rather than being sent a ballot automatically. And all absent voters should have filled out more paperwork and shown their ID each time they vote absent, rather than the first time.
Another bill would have blocked the long-standing practice of allowing local election officials to fill in missing information on envelopes voters use to return postal ballots.
Biden’s victory over Trump in Wisconsin was confirmed by partial recounts targeting Democrat-dominated counties of Milwaukee and Dane, where Trump tried and failed to disqualify thousands of absentee votes.
Among those Trump attempted to throw out were 5,500 mail-in ballots where election clerks filled in missing address information on certification envelopes containing mail-in ballots.
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The bill would have made it a crime for election clerks to fill in missing information, punishable by a fine of up to $ 10,000 and three years in prison.
A third bill that Evers vetoed would have banned ballot collections earlier than two weeks before an election. It would also have made it possible to have only one mail-in ballot collection site, located near the local clerk’s office. Republican supporters said the aim was to prevent the “harvesting of ballots” by banning events or places where ballots could be collected.
The proposal followed the Democracy in the Park event held in Madison City Parks last year, where election officials collected mail ballots before the early voting period began two weeks before the elections.
Another bill that Evers vetoed would have made it a felony for an employee of a nursing home or other care facility to coerce an occupant to ask or not to request a postal ballot . It would also force the nursing home to notify relatives when special deputies planned to be on site to help residents vote.
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