Rep. Krug: Election Day 2024 Worked, but Wisconsin can do Better

The head of the Assembly’s election committee says Wisconsin can do better for the next election.

Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, penned an op-ed that ran in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday that outlined Election Day 2024’s successes, and looking ahead to the next election.

"Election workers and clerks from across the state did an outstanding job managing record turnout, including a significant number of absentee ballots that were unable to be processed prior to Election Day. In Milwaukee, election officials managed a hiccup with transparency, and swiftly announced the reprocessing of some absentee ballots after consulting openly with Republicans and Democrats," Krug wrote.

Krug has been critical of how Wisconsin’s election managers have worked over the past couple of elections, but his criticisms never touched on stolen elections, hacked vote counting machines, or a desire to overturn the 2020 election.

Instead, Krug has spent the past couple of years trying to improve Wisconsin’s electoral system, and pass laws that give voters more confidence in what local election clerks are doing.

“I joined RightCount earlier this year to work alongside first responders, veterans, business owners, farmers and Wisconsinites from all walks of life to defend the integrity of our elections and find ways to improve our system moving forward," Krug added. "Partnerships like these allow us to connect directly with voters and identify areas of concern around the election system, something RightCount did earlier this year. They found that voters trusted their own election administrators, but not those in other counties, cities, or states."

Krug then turned to what worked in 2024.

"Voters believed in voter ID, in having a more transparent process, in having paper ballots to keep a full record of the vote total - things we do extremely well in Wisconsin but need to communicate to the public more effectively," Krug wrote. "Our elections were conducted safely and fairly in 2024, but without constant evaluation and improvement, we will become a target for bad actors who threaten to upend our system of government."

Krug used his op-ed to once again push for a state law that allows local election clerks to count absentee ballots before Election Day, or at least before the polls close on Election Day.

"The simplest first step we can take is to pre-process absentee ballots before Election Day. This year, more than 1.5 million Wisconsinites cast their ballots before election day, and 950,000 of those were early in-person absentee ballots. This is a healthy sign for our state and our nation," Krug explained. "But when election workers can’t process those ballots prior to Election Day, it forces the hands of the administrators throughout the state."

Krug managed to get an early-count plan through the Assembly, but it never got a vote in the Wisconsin Senate because of fears that an early count could be used to cheat.

He also used his op-ed to advocate for the other pieces of voter integrity legislation that Republicans passed, and Gov. Evers vetoed.

"Our recommended reforms included pre-processing of ballots, stricter rules around overseas voting to prevent fraud, stronger protections for our election officials, and preventing last minute closures of polling sites. It’s past time to pass these good government reforms and ensure that we are doing everything in our power to protect the voices of Wisconsin voters," Krug said in his conclusion.