The Assembly has passed AB567 but the Senate has not, there’s still time!
The Monday Count Bill allows municipalities that use a “central count” location to begin opening and processing absentee ballots (putting the ballots through a tabulator) the Monday before the election. Note: Central count is where all the absentee ballots for the municipality are sent to one “central” location to be processed. Typically the ballots are sent to the polling place where the absentee voter resides for processing.
The arguments given for why we need the bill is so that we don’t have to wait until 3am for results on election night (Milwaukee was done counting much earlier in 2022). During the hearing on AB567 held on October 31, 2023, supporters stated that the actually tallies of the ballots were not allowed to be looked at until Tuesday after the election. Also the supporters stated that Florida has early counting. Let’s address those issues. Milwaukee, the city whose clerk illegally told people to declare themselves as ‘indefinitely confined” is going to follow the law? Remember, the Supreme Court had to tell the clerks of Dane and Milwaukee counties to stop telling people that they could illegally declare themselves “indefinitely confined”. Also the Milwaukee Elections Clerk (the one that found an extra thumb drive in her purse) had this exchange with one of the left winged groups during the 2020 election. From my Newsletter 10#.
It is my opinion that all the Monday Count Bill will do is give the Democrats an extra day to “see where they are” in terms of “just enough ballots to get the job done”. Does anyone expect these Democrat cities to abide by the law and NOT look at the results early? And who would file charges? The Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm? Josh Kaul? Not a chance.
The second item is fairly easy to dispel. Florida has a 29 day registration requirement. In Florida if you decide to vote 27 days before that election and your not registered, then you don’t vote. Wisconsin has same day registration AND voting rolls that are bloated beyond comprehension. We already have shown that voters can be activated and deactivated with a simple click of the mouse. There is a reason that Meagan Wolfe and WEC refuse to address the issue.
Below is a link to the bill history, AB567. Please take a few moments and explore the information available here.
There is no vote tally in the Assembly because our “leaders” decided to pass it on a voice vote. Here are the folks that demanded to go on record as “no votes”. Below is copied and pasted from the official journal.
“The question was: Assembly Bill 567 having been read three times, shall the bill be passed? Motion carried.
Representatives Allen, Behnke, Bodden, Brandtjen, Callahan, Goeben and Wichgers asked unanimous consent to be recorded as voting “No” on the previous question. Granted.
Representative August asked unanimous consent that the rules be suspended and that Assembly Bill 567 be immediately messaged to the Senate. Granted.”
As you can see from the bill history the Senate companion bill SB685 is in the Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections and Consumer Protection. The link below will take you to the committee and provide links to the committee members.
Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections and Consumer Protection.
UPDATE 12-12-23: Chair Dan Knodl held a hearing on the bill and now it is fair game to go to the floor. State Rep. Janel Brandtjen continues to lobby the Senate to kill the bill.
UPDATE: 4-15-24: Brandtjen is successful in killing AB567.
Bill Savage - As we get rolling into the campaign season, please consider contributing to my “We’ve Had Enough” Project. We need Republicans who act like Republicans in the legislature! There is a $50 option and a $240 Charter Member option!
Thank you!!
Thank you for sharing that Kitchens voted for this garbage, Monday count bill, totally wrong.