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prediction betting markets draw billions in wagers on everything from World Cup outcomes

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to now elections. Kelsey, which describes itself as the next generation financial exchange,

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this month launched a midterms hub designed, they say, as the one stop shop for state

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and federal election forecasting and betting. Not so fast, says the Wisconsin Elections

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Commission. Commissioner Ann Jacobs is here. And thanks for being here.

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Happy to be here. So the commission recently put out some guidance

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to voters about betting on the outcomes of elections. What did that say?

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The guidance we sent out to voters basically summarized what has been Wisconsin law since

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about 1849, which is you cannot bet on an election and vote in that election.

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So what are the penalties for putting a wager on an election?

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There's two sort of penalties for it. Number one is someone could challenge your ballot

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and have it not count. And the second one, which is far more draconian, is it is actually

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a class I felony to bet and vote in the same election.

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How would anyone find out whether you had done that or not?

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I get asked that question quite a bit. And the answer is the same way crimes are reported

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to authorities of all types. A spurned spouse or boyfriend, girlfriend,

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a disgruntled employee, an agitated neighbor, someone who you promised to share the money

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with and then didn't share the bet results with. That's how these sort of things are reported.

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How could betting the outcome warp the process even tips the outcome?

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There's a few ways it could. I mean, one of which is sort of on the very personal level.

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You are no longer voting for the person you think would be best in the position. You're

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now voting for someone who can line your pockets. And that's a corruption of the process on

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a very individual level. In theory, you could have people within a campaign go out to place bets

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to try to tilt the prediction markets, to create a false sense of momentum or antipathy towards

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a given candidate. So it could be an attempt to manipulate it at a much larger level.

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What about the argument that wagering on an election actually gets people who wouldn't

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or nearly be interested in voting involved in the process? I find that so odd. We want

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them to come into the process to vote not for the person that they think is going to be best,

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but to try to make money. That's sort of a warped view of elections. We want people to vote. I

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want people to vote. I hope everyone goes out and votes on August 11. But I want you to go out

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and vote because you believe that is going to be the best person for the job at hand.

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What is your reaction to Kelsey's new midterms hub?

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You know, apparently there is great enthusiasm for this as I accidentally learned by posting on

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social media about this law. And people take it quite seriously. I don't have any opinion one

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way or another about prediction markets, whether they're good or bad, legal or not.

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All I care about is I don't want people to accidentally commit a felony

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by voting and betting. You can vote. You can bet. You just can't do both.

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Does this put the Wisconsin Elections Commission squarely into a fight with a very,

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very moneyed interest? I hope not because we're one of something like 35 states that have this

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same law. The policy behind the law is sound and has been that case for 100 and

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however many years it's been. So we really need to think about whether or not we want

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our elections to be governed by money making or by efficacy in government.

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On another matter, what is your reaction to this week's court ruling that upholds

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WEC guidance that you opposed saying early absentee voters can't get a do-over even if

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their candidate dropped out? Now that's with nearly 130,000 early ballots cast and another

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candidate this week dropping out. I was obviously very disappointed in the outcome. I have been

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on the commission since 2016. It was our guidance at all times until the court put it on hold.

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And now we've issued this new guidance for the very first time without

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alerting voters. It was coming and I was very disappointed in that outcome.

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All right. We leave it there, Commissioner Anne Jacobs. Thanks so much.

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Pleasure.

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Thank you. That was perfect. Like your backdrop.

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Thank you, Frederica. It's always fun to see you. When I was in college,

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you were Frederica Rungi and were on the news. Yes. And so that was when I first saw your face

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as a reporter. So I'm always sort of entertained when, you know, this many years later. I know,

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right? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what I think of high school reunion

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is this weekend. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I don't know what I think I'm doing, but I'm still

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doing it. So I appreciate it. So thanks a lot. Have a great weekend too. Bye.

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Bye.