Walker Signs Elections Bill Banning Weekend Absentee Voting

Weekend voting ahead of an election would be banned under a measure Gov. Scott Walker has signed into law.

Before Walker took office, people could cast absentee ballots in person at city clerk’s offices for three weekends before an election. A law Walker signed last session limited that to just one weekend. The law he signed today ends it entirely.

Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl says it will create issues for voters who can’t vote in-person during the week.

“We have, for decades, been open on the weekends for absentee voting and the Saturday that we’re open is the day that we hear ‘thank you’ most from voters,” she said. “A lot of different stories of why they wouldn’t have been able to vote otherwise.”

Witzel-Behl says more than 2,000 people voted at her office on the weekend before the last November election. That works out to one voter every 2-3 minutes that the clerk’s office was open.

Walker did use his partial veto to get rid of a 45-hour weekly cap on early voting that was passed by the legislature, but it would still be limited to between the hours of eight in the morning and seven at night.

Still, Scot Ross, with the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, said that change did not fix the law, which he said would end up in court: “This fight is not going to end with Governor Walker’s signature, and it will end with a judge declaring it unconstitutional. And we are pursuing all avenues on that.”

Walker signed the bill in private. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Burlington, issued a statement praising the move, saying that just as voting hours on election day are standard throughout the state, early absentee voting will now be the same no matter where you reside.