Rep. Lee Snodgrass and Sen. Mark Spreitzer, who have served as the Democratic point people on election administration for years, are expected to become the most influential lawmakers on election legislation when the new session begins early next year. Both sat on legislative election committees, developed relationships with local clerks, and advanced proposals that often stalled under Republican majorities.

At the top of their shared agenda is a bill that would let election officials process absentee ballots on the Monday before an election. Wisconsin is unusual in barring workers from beginning that process until the morning of Election Day, a restriction that frequently delays unofficial results, especially in high-turnout contests. "There's a pretty clear consensus on most of the top-line things," Spreitzer said. "Monday processing should be really easy."

Both lawmakers also identified increased election funding as a major priority, though neither offered specifics on funding sources or how the money should be directed. Snodgrass was reluctant to discuss other policies before conferring in depth with Assembly Democratic colleagues, but said bills that previously drew bipartisan support from campaigns and election committees could lay the groundwork for future action. "I'm excited for the many possibilities to shore up our democracy and voter rights," she said.

Spreitzer was more forthcoming. Beyond Monday processing and funding, he wants to expand the list of eligible photo IDs for voting and to again allow voters to spoil absentee ballots after returning them if they change their minds. He said he would consider mandating that clerks print a minimum number of ballots, provided the state funds the requirement. He also wants to repeal a law requiring election officials in municipalities that count absentee ballots at a central facility to write unique identifiers on the back of each ballot, a requirement critics say risks ballot secrecy. Repeal efforts have drawn bipartisan support in the past.

Spreitzer said Democrats will likely address absentee ballot drop boxes, whose legality has swung back and forth in the courts. Drop boxes are not mentioned in state law, though a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in 2024 cleared the way for their use. He wants to update state law to include drop boxes and would consider grants to expand coverage or perhaps require cities of a certain size to make them available. He also supports automatic voter registration, which would register eligible voters when they receive or renew a state-issued ID card or driver's license.

Outside groups and Republicans are signaling that bipartisan buy-in will matter. Sam Liebert, Wisconsin state director of All Voting is Local and a former municipal clerk, supports many of the proposals, including Monday processing, expanding eligible IDs, and automatic voter registration. "We've just had so many ups and downs with trust and faith in our election administration system the last decade," Liebert said. "When you pass something that has bipartisan support, it helps everyone have more trust and faith in the process."

Rep. Scott Krug, the Republican point person on elections for years and former chair of the Assembly election committee, said he could get on board with some Democratic priorities, including Monday processing, but encouraged Democrats to include a specific requirement for Milwaukee to follow checklists and trainings in exchange for the extra day of ballot processing. The city has a history of Election Day errors at its absentee ballot counting facility. Krug warned that other Democratic priorities may not survive future Republican majorities depending on how they are written. Codifying drop boxes, for example, would likely last only if the law included security requirements, he said, and an expanded photo ID list may not survive either. "It all comes down to details, and that's my worry sometimes about a caucus who's never been in the majority before," Krug said. "Yes, you've got control. You can do whatever you want, but you really got to dig deep into some of the unintended consequences of things to make sure you're doing them right."

Clerks have long supported many of the proposals but have also dreaded rapid changes that require them to learn and implement new policies. Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood, a Republican and co-chair of the Wisconsin County Clerks Association's legislative outreach committee, said she would prefer Democrats not change a large number of election policies at once. She supports more election funding, Monday processing, and eliminating the unique-number requirement on absentee ballots, and said she is open to other ideas if changes better accommodate the realities of administering elections. Spoiling ballots after they are cast, for example, could only work if the deadline came before Election Day, she said. Trueblood said she has every confidence that Snodgrass and Spreitzer will work with her.

Legislators said they would include clerks in their conversations about policies. "We're never, at the end of the day, going to make everybody happy," Snodgrass said. "But the bottom line is just to make sure that everything is clear."

Liebert noted a "ticking clock" before the 2028 presidential election, saying it would help the state's 1,850 municipal clerks if legislators passed new policies sooner rather than later. "We want to make sure that clerks at the county and the municipal level are prepared and trained and have adjusted for any changes," he said.