Lawmakers visit Wausau to discuss elections reform proposals

State lawmakers are discussing proposals aimed at making changes to the state’s election system.

State Representatives Scott Krug (R-Rome) and Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) held a joint press conference last month to announce competing bills that would allow early processing of absentee ballots and regulate drop boxes statewide. 

The representatives appeared on a panel on Friday in Wausau, hosted by the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service and WisPolitics.

It comes more than a year after Wausau Mayor Doug Diny removed an absentee ballot dropbox from the steps of city hall. That’s still being investigated by the city’s ethics board.

Representative Krug said the proposed legislation would prevent another similar situation. He calls it the Doug Diny provision. 

“It’s one of those things where elections get wonky and frustrating and contentious because one individual thought it might be a good display of their perceptive power to say okay I’m just gonna take this and put it where I want to put it,” Krug said.

Krug said his legislation would require ballot boxes to be physically secured to their location, and Diny’s removal of the box would not be a crime under his proposed bill because the box was not secured properly. 

“It was still stupid,” he said. “It wasn’t the greatest idea to put it on Facebook, but we are going to say once these things do reach these standards and these requirements they are locked in.”

Representative Snodgrass says Diny’s actions were a “weird flux of power” and that establishing new guidelines for ballot box security varies based on each municipality. 

“Should there be a loose, not bolted down dropbox at a Pick-and-Save? Probably not, but you know is it okay if one municipality has it in front of their fire department and another municipality has it on a busy street corner that has cameras,” she said. “That’s probably okay, too, if it follows the guidelines that are in place.”

The Wausau Ethic Board also met Friday to discuss pre-hearing procedures and review the status of proceedings regarding the complaint against Diny.

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