Four bills intended to suppress the voices of Wisconsin voters will be up for votes on the Senate Floor during a session on Wednesday, June 9. All of these bills will place undue barriers on voters - especially voters with disabilities - or will create new barriers to participating in our elections.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin believes that voting is a fundamental citizen right that must be guaranteed. Participating in our democracy by voting should be a safe, accessible and positive experience for all eligible Wisconsin residents and to that end, we oppose all four of the Senate Bills.
We urge you to take action to show your opposition to Senate Bills 204, 205, 206, 209 and 211, encouraging members of the Wisconsin State Senate to also oppose the bills because of the burden they will place on voters, especially those with disabilities, and on our democracy. Below outlines the options you have to take action, and at the end of this message there are also summaries of the provisions of each bills.
Your legislators need to know how these bills will negatively impact voting accessibility and the voting experience for your and your community. Contact your State Senator to tell them how these measures may impact you, and urge them to vote no on these bills that will suppress your vote. The Wisconsin Disability Vote Coalition has provided some useful language to help you craft your messages. There are also more details on the bills below.
Details on the Bills
SB 204. Under this bill, indefinitely confined voters would have to apply for an absentee ballot for each and every election they wish to vote in, which is unnecessary and burdensome for voters. They would also have to provide a picture of their photo ID with each request.
SB 205 would require the administrator of a residential care facility or qualified retirement home to provide notice of the dates and times when special voting deputies (SVDs) will be visiting the home or facility. The bill also provides that such employees would be committing a felony for encouraging a resident to apply for an absentee ballot or vote. This extreme legislation assumes the residents cannot make independent decisions, and it would violate the privacy of their vote.
SB 206 places unnecessary restrictions on the ability to cast an absentee ballot and allows for no flexibility to address unforeseen personal or public circumstances. The bill would limit the rights of voters who currently certify as indefinitely confined and impose extreme requirements for those under the age of 65 to obtain statements signed by a doctor. This bill creates new hurdles for voters, especially those with disabilities, at the risk of committing a felony.
SB 209 prohibits municipalities from having more than one drop box, and requires the box to be affixed to the building where the clerk’s office is located. Drop boxes helped thousands of Wisconsin voters around the state return their absentee ballots safely in a timely manner last fall. Limiting municipalities to one ballot box does not increase accessibility by residents of various neighborhoods, and it would decrease dropbox accessibility for municipalities that were able to install multiple dropboxes.
SB 211 requires WEC to prescribe the form and instructions of the absentee ballot application, which must be a separate and distinct form from the certificate envelope voters must complete in order to submit their absentee ballots - much of this information would have already been provided by the voter earlier in the voting process. This is a burden, especially for voters with certain disabilities.
