The News: A new report by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) and the MacIver Institute finds that a longstanding Wisconsin statute conflicts with the Wisconsin Constitution’s “secret ballot” guarantee. As a result, WILL and MacIver are calling for the Wisconsin Legislature to amend the law.
The Quote: WILL Associate Counsel, Nathalie Burmeister, stated, “We have serious concerns that enforcing this statute at central count locations could violate voters’ right to a ‘secret ballot.’ We are hopeful the Legislature will amend the law, and that WEC will work with local election officials to protect the right of all voters to have the way they voted kept private.”
CEO of the MacIver Institute, Annette Olson, stated, “Voter confidence in elections is critical in securing and preserving freedom in Wisconsin and America. Protecting the secret ballot should be everyone’s priority.”
The Issue: Under Wis. Stat. § 7.52(3), election officials in municipalities that use central count must put the poll list number of each voter who casts an absentee ballot on the back of the ballot. The “poll list” is a list maintained by election officials in which each voter is given a unique number, and the voter’s name is recorded on the list when their vote is cast. The poll list is a public record. As a result, someone could easily find out that John Doe was voter #452 on the poll list in the last election.