Schroeder says the Wisconsin Elections Commission is failing and should be eliminated. If elected, he plans to argue to the next governor that his victory gives him a mandate to take over election administration. In 37 states, the secretary of state oversees elections, but Wisconsin has kept that responsibility in a separate agency for more than 50 years.

Zamarripa, a Milwaukee alder and former state representative, says she is worried Schroeder would receive broad authority to pursue that change. Karas calls the proposal unsound and doubts a governor or Legislature would approve it.

Wisconsin shifted election oversight away from the secretary of state in 1974, assigning it to an independent State Elections Board. The Government Accountability Board later took over, and the Wisconsin Elections Commission replaced it in 2016.

Former state election administrator Kevin Kennedy says criticism of the system is more political than substantive. The commission’s supporters also point to recognition its executive director, Meagan Wolfe, received in 2024 for public service and improvements to the agency’s operations.

Schroeder, who also ran as the Republican nominee in 2018 and lost to Democrat Doug La Follette, says concerns about voter registration records prompted his latest campaign. Wisconsin law requires the commission to retain records of people removed from the active voter list, marking those records inactive rather than deleting them.

Those inactive records are not included in the registration lists sent to polling places, according to the commission. People who later qualify to vote in Wisconsin must register again. Election officials say retaining the records helps local clerks check registrations and guard against impersonation, while the commission uses state and federal data to flag deaths, possible duplicate registrations and felony convictions for review.

Schroeder argues the records should be removed and has cited his deceased father’s name appearing in the system as a reason he decided to run. He said he did not contact the local clerk or the commission to correct the record. The commission says it uses Social Security data to identify people who have died and remove them from active voter lists. Federal law also requires states to preserve some records of people removed from voter rolls, according to Sam Liebert, Wisconsin director of All Voting Is Local.

Schroeder has pointed to election administration incidents, including duplicate ballots sent to Green Bay voters and a Milwaukee central-counting facility using a thumb drive loaded with the wrong database. The commission investigated both cases. In Milwaukee, audit logs showed no evidence of tampering.

Zamarripa says the secretary of state’s existing responsibilities are significant. The office serves on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which earns money through timber sales for public school libraries and provides loans for community and public projects. It also authenticates documents used in international matters, including adoptions and business transactions. Zamarripa says she would seek more staff and funding for the office.

She served five terms in the state Assembly after winning election in 2010, then left to run for Milwaukee’s Common Council in 2020. Now midway through her second aldermanic term, she says a statewide campaign could help mobilize Latino voters and reduce a drop-off in their participation during midterm elections. She has also said she wants Democrats to keep the office.

Karas, a longtime Green Party activist, says voters want alternatives to the two major parties. He would prefer a nonpartisan secretary of state’s office elected in spring alongside local races. He also supports modernizing public records, with additional funding and partnerships with libraries, universities and nonprofits.

The candidates differ as well over a 2025-27 state budget provision allowing Milwaukee County to use certain traffic fine and forfeiture revenue for prosecutors and district attorneys, rather than directing most of it to the Common School Fund. Karas says he would have urged the public lands board to sue over the change; the provision is already the subject of a lawsuit.

The three-way race puts questions of election administration alongside the less visible work of the secretary of state’s office. Schroeder says changing who runs elections would help restore public confidence. The other candidates argue that confidence and public service do not require dismantling the independent commission.