Wisconsin moves closer to changing primary date

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A bill that would move Wisconsin's presidential primary to April appears to be on the fast track after getting backing from both parties Thursday, but another bill moving the partisan primary got mixed reactions from Democratic lawmakers.

The legislation would move the presidential primary from the third Tuesday in February to the first Tuesday in April. That means the presidential primary would be the same day as the spring nonpartisan general election.

The proposal was made at the request of national Republican and Democratic parties, which have specific guidelines for when certain states can hold presidential primaries. Only Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada are allowed to hold primaries before March 1 without penalty.

The parties want to avoid frontloading their primaries, said Sen. Mary Lazich, chairwoman of the Senate's elections committee. The Assembly and Senate elections committee are jointly considering the bill.

Because a range of other states are also pushing back their primaries, it's likely that Wisconsin's primary would appear the middle of the national primary schedule.

While the presidential primary bill was well-received by clerks and lawmakers, legislation that would move the state's partisan primary was met with mixed reaction.

That bill would move Wisconsin's partisan primary, which allows voters to choose a candidate from their party to run in the general election, from the second Tuesday in September to the second Tuesday in August. The move would attempt to comply with the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, which mandates that states mail ballots for federal elections to those voters at least 45 days before an election. Wisconsin was denied a waiver from the law in 2010, but agreed to change their election process to comply with the law in 2012.

However, municipal and county clerks said the date could still be too late to allow clerks to print, proof and prepare ballots to be mailed in time.

"Given the recent events and experiences with the April elections and the recounts, I'm sure we all saw the issues with meeting deadlines," said Dianne Hermann-Brown, president of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association.

Some lawmakers noted that the date change could cause problems for incumbents trying to balance reelection campaigns with state business near the end of the legislative session. Democratic Rep. Fred Kessler of Milwaukee suggested amending the bill to move the primary to the last Tuesday in August.

"The thing that concerns me on this is just that we're spending much too much time in terms of just the whole campaign process," Kessler said. "I know that the Canadian elections took 30 days. English elections take 30 days. German elections take 30 to 45 days. We end up just having all other democratic countries having their whole process take so much shorter."

The second Tuesday in August would be the "outside date" to allow compliance with the MOVE Act, said Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board, which oversees Wisconsin elections.

Kennedy recommended additional changes to the primary process. Those include requiring ballots be mailed out 47 days before the election, shortening the candidate petition circulation period and shortening the period for accepting overseas ballots from 10 days to three days after Election Day.

Several Democrats also raised concerns that the date change might disenfranchise college students who are just returning to campus in mid-to-late August. A recently passed voter identification law created a 28-day residency requirement for those wishing to vote in state elections and impose strict requirements on use of student IDs at polls.

Several Democrats said the residency requirement, combined with a primary date change, raises the likelihood that students will be unable to vote in their college district. But Rep. Jeff Stone, a Republican from Greendale said those students could vote at their summer addresses instead.

The Assembly and Senate election committees plan to vote on both bills next week. While Lazich plans to draft a substitute amendment to incorporate some recommended changes to the bill, that amendment will likely be introduced once the bill has made it to the full Legislature.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)