Reporting from Madison. I'm Murv Seymour for here and
Now. >> Prediction betting
markets draw billions in wagers on everything from
World Cup outcomes to now elections. Kalshi, which
describes itself as the next generation financial
exchange, this month launched a midterms hub
designed, they say, as the one stop shop for state and
federal election forecasting and betting.
Not so fast, says the Wisconsin Elections
Commission. Commissioner Ann Jacobs is here, and
thanks for being here. >> Happy to be here.
>> So the commission recently put out some
guidance to voters about betting on the outcomes of
elections. What did that say?
>> The guidance we sent out to voters basically
summarized what has been Wisconsin law since about
1849, which is you cannot bet on an election and vote
in that election. >> So what are the
penalties for putting a wager on an election?
>> There's two sort of penalties for it. Number
one is someone could challenge your ballot and
have it not count. And the second one, which is far
more draconian, is it is actually a class I felony
to bet and vote in the same election.
>> How would anyone find out whether you had done
that or not? >> I get asked that
question quite a bit, and the answer is the same way
crimes are reported to authorities, of all types a,
a spurned spouse or boyfriend girlfriend, a
disgruntled employee, an agitated neighbor, someone
who you promised to share the money with and then
didn't share the bet results with. That's how
these sort of things are reported.
>> How could betting on the outcome warp the process,
even tip the outcome? >> There's a few ways it
could. I mean, one of which is sort of on the very
personal level, you are no longer voting for the
person you think would be best in the position you're
now voting for someone who can line your pockets. And
that's a corruption of, of the process on a very
individual level. In theory, you could have people
within a, a campaign go out to place bets to try to
tilt the prediction markets to create, a false sense of
momentum or antipathy towards a given candidate.
So it could be an attempt to manipulate it at a much
larger level. >> What about the argument
that wagering on an election actually gets
people who wouldn't ordinarily be interested in
voting involved in the process?
>> I find that so odd. We want them to come into the
process to vote, not for the person that they think
is going to be best, but to try to make money. That's
sort of a warped view of elections. We want people
to vote. I want people to vote. I hope everyone goes
out and votes on August 11th, but I want you to go
out and vote because you believe that is going to be
the best person for the job at hand.
>> What is your reaction to Kalshi new midterms hub?
>> I, you know, apparently there is great enthusiasm
for this, as I accidentally learned by posting on
social media about this law and people take it quite
seriously. I don't have any opinion one way or another
about prediction markets, whether they're good or bad,
legal or not. All I care about is I don't want
people to accidentally commit a felony by voting
and betting. You can vote. You can bet you just can't
do both. >> Does this put the
Wisconsin Elections Commission squarely into a
fight with a very, very moneyed interest?
>> I hope not, because we're one of something like
35 states that have this same law. The policy behind
the law is sound and has been that case for 100 and
however many years it's been. So we really need to
think about whether or not we want our elections to be
governed by money making or by efficacy in government.
>> On another matter, what is your reaction to this
week's court ruling that upholds WECA guidance that
you opposed, saying early absentee voters can't get a
do over even if their candidate dropped out? Now,
that's with nearly 130,000 early ballots cast and
another candidate this week dropping out.
>> I was obviously very disappointed in the outcome.
I have been on the commission since 2016. It
was our guidance, at all times until a court put it
on hold. And now we've issued this new guidance
for the very first time without alerting voters. It
was coming. And I was very disappointed in that
outcome. >> All right. We leave it