Opinion: Focus is Back on Wisconsin’s Decentralized Election Process

Tom Still, the past president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, emphasized the multiple checks and balances in Wisconsin’s decentralized election administration system in the Wisconsin State Journal: 

Here’s a summary of the Wisconsin process from a recent meeting of the nonpartisan “Pillars of the Community,” which works in seven states. The Wisconsin session included election officials from municipal, county and state governments.

• Wisconsin is the most decentralized election system in the nation, with 1,943 clerks at the municipal, town and county levels. Most state systems are much more “top down.”
• The Wisconsin Election Commission has six members, three Republicans and three Democrats. At least two must be former local clerks.
• No elections rules pass the commission without at least four votes. The Wisconsin Legislature also can pass election laws to be signed or vetoed by the governor.

Read the full piece here (paywalled).