to do. >> Senator Tammy Baldwin,
thanks very much. >> Thank you for having me.
>> There could be a scramble ahead of 2026
elections in Wisconsin after a Waukesha County
Circuit Court ruling that directs the Wisconsin
Elections Commission to verify whether people
registered to vote are U.S. citizens. Republican
appointed Commissioner Don Millis is here with
reaction. And thanks very much for being here.
>> My pleasure. >> So the judge's ruling
requires election officials to verify citizenship by
matching voter registrations to state Dot
files, with a spring primary coming up in
February. How reasonable is that timeline?
>> Well, I think it's going to be a challenge if that's
the way the order sticks. We know that there's going
to be another hearing on October 31st, and it's
always possible that there could be modifications.
Certainly, the commission does have a role in making
sure that people who are on the list are eligible to
vote. And, you know, we work with local clerks,
1850 local clerks to make sure that happens. So we
will see what the order ends up being and we will
do our best to comply. At least that's how I think we
should be acting. >> So you do think it's
reasonable to prevent non-citizens from being on
the voter rolls or to remove them?
a role in doing that. A year ago, there was a
concern about a couple of Department of
Transportation types of licenses that were handed
or provided to visa holders and green card holders.
There was a concern that those identification cards
would be used for registration and and or
voting. And so we issued a directive to all the clerks
in the state to be on the lookout for those to see if
someone presents that indicate that that's a
great likelihood that that person is not a citizen,
not impossible. They could be a citizen. And we
provided instructions on how to deal with that. So
we've taken that on that task before, and I think
we'll take it on again. It just depends on the degree
and how widespread we're required to act.
>> As to that issue of non-citizens holding ID's,
state IDs that otherwise could be used as part of
the voter ID law to to vote. Your commission told us
when we did some reporting on this that there were
only three non-citizens that have been referred for
prosecution since 2019, in that way, is this a
solution in search of a problem, then?
>> Well, I don't doubt that the issue of non-citizens
voting is a very minor one. It doesn't happen very
often, but part of our role is to make sure that
there's confidence in the elections. I know I've told
you in the past that, you know, despite the fact that
we have some of the best technology available, and
we can assure that our elections are fair and the
results are valid. But there are these things come
up. And part of our role is to instill confidence. We
have in the past, like last year when we sent that
circular out, we were concerned that there was a
perception that those widespread use of those IDs,
regardless of whether there was widespread use. It was
important that we instill confidence. Back in 2022,
there were a couple of examples of improper
requests for absentee ballots. Now those were
handled properly. Those ballots were never issued.
But because the public perception we acted and we
took steps to make sure that that if that happened
on a widespread basis, there would be a way of
making sure that those ballots wouldn't be issued
or that people, if they were issued, there'd be a
way of remedying that. Again, just because
something in fact doesn't happen on a widespread
basis doesn't mean that it's not important for us
to address the perception, to instill public
confidence in the validity of our elections.
>> As you mentioned, the Wisconsin Department of
Justice has appealed this Waukesha County Circuit
Court ruling. And while that's under consideration,
the Waukesha judge put on hold his ruling that local
clerks cannot register new voters without proof of
citizenship. But how would citizenship be proved right?
>> Well, that I didn't have a huge problem with much of
the decision. That was one one aspect of the decision.
I don't think it's a good look to tell people you
can't register, especially if we have an opportunity
to later verify. I think that it is it is a
challenge because some of our identifications that we
that are provided to citizens are also provided
to non-citizens. So that is a challenge. I think it is
more incumbent on the authorities, the Department
of Transportation, the Elections Commission,
working with local clerks to try to identify people
who might not be citizens or not citizens and take
remedial action. >> But when when you
register to vote, you have to check a box. Saying that
you are a citizen under penalty of law. Is that not
good enough? >> Then I think that for
99.99% of the registrants, that is good enough. But
there is again a perception that this could happen. And
again, we shouldn't take it lightly that that doesn't
happen. You know, we have we have examples of double
voting. We make referrals to district attorneys
because things like that do happen. It's not widespread,
instill confidence and take action appropriately.