Letter to the editor:

On the April 2 election ballot voters will see a proposed constitutional amendment disguised as a statewide referendum. Question 1 of the referendum seeks to amend the Wisconsin constitution by prohibiting the use of private funds and donations in “connection with the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum.” Question 2 would specify who “may perform tasks in the conduct of primaries, elections, and referendums.”

The proposed amendment is not only solutions in search of a problem. It would create new problems as well.

Both questions are unnecessary as well as deceptively vague. Private grants are used solely for election administration purposes that otherwise must be paid with public funds, funds that are often scarce, unpredictable, and at the mercy of federal, state, and local governments. And does prohibiting “donations” extend to the free use of non-governmental facilities as polling places, or providing food and refreshments to poll workers?

As for Question 2, the answer is already a law on the books. State statute 7.3(2a) of the Wisconsin Code provide that “Only election officials appointed under this section or s. 6.875 may conduct an election.” What “conduct,” then, would be prohibited to volunteers who are not elected officials? The proposed amendment does not address this at all.

There is a deeper issue here. Both questions led former lives as proposed legislation vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers. Now, the state Senate, lacking a supermajority to override the veto, is again attempting an end-run around both the legislative process and the separation of powers by enshrining failed legislation into the state constitution, where it would be immune to gubernatorial veto – and from the voters for at least two years, the time required before a repeal of an amendment can appear on a new ballot.

Slipping in deceptive, harmless-looking questions that turn out to be mechanisms for changing the Wisconsin constitution has become an increasingly frequent tactic of the current state Senate: More such referendum-amendment proposals will appear on the election ballots in August and November.

On April 2, answer ‘no’ to both questions on the statewide referendum.

John. H. Callan

Fort Atkinson