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to do.
>> Senator Tammy Baldwin,

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thanks very much.
>> Thank you for having me.

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>> There could be a
scramble ahead of 2026

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elections in Wisconsin
after a Waukesha County

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Circuit Court ruling that
directs the Wisconsin

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Elections Commission to
verify whether people

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registered to vote are U.S.
citizens. Republican

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appointed Commissioner Don
Millis is here with

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reaction. And thanks very
much for being here.

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>> My pleasure.
>> So the judge's ruling

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requires election officials
to verify citizenship by

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matching voter
registrations to state Dot

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files, with a spring
primary coming up in

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February. How reasonable is
that timeline?

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>> Well, I think it's going
to be a challenge if that's

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the way the order sticks.
We know that there's going

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to be another hearing on
October 31st, and it's

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always possible that there
could be modifications.

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Certainly, the commission
does have a role in making

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sure that people who are on
the list are eligible to

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vote. And, you know, we
work with local clerks,

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1850 local clerks to make
sure that happens. So we

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will see what the order
ends up being and we will

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do our best to comply. At
least that's how I think we

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should be acting.
>> So you do think it's

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reasonable to prevent
non-citizens from being on

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the voter rolls or to
remove them?

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a role in doing that. A
year ago, there was a

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concern about a couple of
Department of

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Transportation types of
licenses that were handed

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or provided to visa holders
and green card holders.

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There was a concern that
those identification cards

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would be used for
registration and and or

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voting. And so we issued a
directive to all the clerks

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in the state to be on the
lookout for those to see if

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someone presents that
indicate that that's a

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great likelihood that that
person is not a citizen,

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not impossible. They could
be a citizen. And we

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provided instructions on
how to deal with that. So

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we've taken that on that
task before, and I think

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we'll take it on again. It
just depends on the degree

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and how widespread we're
required to act.

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>> As to that issue of
non-citizens holding ID's,

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state IDs that otherwise
could be used as part of

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the voter ID law to to vote.
Your commission told us

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when we did some reporting
on this that there were

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only three non-citizens
that have been referred for

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prosecution since 2019, in
that way, is this a

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solution in search of a
problem, then?

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>> Well, I don't doubt that
the issue of non-citizens

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voting is a very minor one.
It doesn't happen very

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often, but part of our role
is to make sure that

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there's confidence in the
elections. I know I've told

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you in the past that, you
know, despite the fact that

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we have some of the best
technology available, and

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we can assure that our
elections are fair and the

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results are valid. But
there are these things come

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up. And part of our role is
to instill confidence. We

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have in the past, like last
year when we sent that

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circular out, we were
concerned that there was a

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perception that those
widespread use of those IDs,

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regardless of whether there
was widespread use. It was

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important that we instill
confidence. Back in 2022,

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there were a couple of
examples of improper

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requests for absentee
ballots. Now those were

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handled properly. Those
ballots were never issued.

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But because the public
perception we acted and we

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took steps to make sure
that that if that happened

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on a widespread basis,
there would be a way of

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making sure that those
ballots wouldn't be issued

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or that people, if they
were issued, there'd be a

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way of remedying that.
Again, just because

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something in fact doesn't
happen on a widespread

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basis doesn't mean that
it's not important for us

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to address the perception,
to instill public

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confidence in the validity
of our elections.

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>> As you mentioned, the
Wisconsin Department of

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Justice has appealed this
Waukesha County Circuit

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Court ruling. And while
that's under consideration,

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the Waukesha judge put on
hold his ruling that local

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clerks cannot register new
voters without proof of

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citizenship. But how would
citizenship be proved right?

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>> Well, that I didn't have
a huge problem with much of

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the decision. That was one
one aspect of the decision.

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I don't think it's a good
look to tell people you

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can't register, especially
if we have an opportunity

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to later verify. I think
that it is it is a

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challenge because some of
our identifications that we

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that are provided to
citizens are also provided

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to non-citizens. So that is
a challenge. I think it is

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more incumbent on the
authorities, the Department

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of Transportation, the
Elections Commission,

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working with local clerks
to try to identify people

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who might not be citizens
or not citizens and take

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remedial action.
>> But when when you

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register to vote, you have
to check a box. Saying that

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you are a citizen under
penalty of law. Is that not

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good enough?
>> Then I think that for

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99.99% of the registrants,
that is good enough. But

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there is again a perception
that this could happen. And

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again, we shouldn't take it
lightly that that doesn't

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happen. You know, we have
we have examples of double

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voting. We make referrals
to district attorneys

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because things like that do
happen. It's not widespread,

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instill confidence and take
action appropriately.