- Podcasts
Podcasts - Videos
Videos - Policy Issues
Policy Issues - About
About
Evers Wants Citizen Referendums
Wisconsin’s governor is starting the new legislative session by backing a new plan to go around the state’s lawmakers.
Gov. Tony Evers on Friday told reporters that he wants the legislature to give voters in the state the ability to create or repeal laws on their own.
"The will of the people should be the law of the land. Republican lawmakers have repeatedly worked to put constitutional amendments on the ballot that Republicans drafted, and Republicans passed, all while Republicans refuse to give that same power to the people of Wisconsin. And that's wrong," Evers told reporters.
Wisconsin does not allow voters to place ballot initiatives up for votes. Currently about half the states do allow voters some say over what makes their ballots each year.
Evers has suggested the idea of voter initiative referendums before. He first brought the idea up during the 2022 election as a way to let Wisconsinites decide on the state’s abortion laws.
Evers on Friday, however, said this push is intended to get around Wisconsin’s Republican-majority legislature.
"Republican lawmakers shouldn't be able to ignore the will of the people and then prevent the people from having a voice when the Legislature fails to listen. That has to change," Evers said.
The governor’s plan would start with the legislature approving a constitutional amendment to give voters the power to decide on state laws. For each proposed voter initiative law, there would be a process through the Wisconsin Elections Commission where voters would have to collect signatures, then petition to get their question on the ballot. Voters would then ultimately decide.
"If Republican lawmakers are going to continue to try and legislate by constitutional amendment, then they should give the people that same power,” Evers added.
The governor’s proposal is likely dead on arrival.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said in the past that voters pick their legislators, and those legislators then vote on Wisconsin’s laws.
Vos has not said what he thinks of Evers’ proposal this time around.
Interested in the content of this Article?
Reach out to the MacIver Institute to aquire more information
