People must now be eligible to vote in Wisconsin in order to circulate recall petitions against state candidates.
That’s according to a Republican-authored bill that is now law. “Under the bill, a person must be eligible to vote in Wisconsin in order to circulate a recall petition and have the signatures on the petition be counted toward a recall,” the Legislative Reference Bureau’s summary says.
This should put an end to Wisconsin residents being deluged by out-of-state recall circulators. That scenario was endured by residents of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’s district during a failed attempt to recall him.
About two-thirds of the 114 people who collected signatures to force the recall against Vos were from out of state, a Wisconsin Right Now review of nomination papers found. A post on social media offered $2,000 a week to out-of-state circulators willing to come to Wisconsin to collect signatures against Vos, and one circulator listed a local hotel as his home address before crossing it out. Some circulators had past criminal charges files against them.
The Wisconsin Election Commission has referred numerous circulators in that recall to the Racine County DA. Most of the people named by WEC have out-of-state addresses and one had no address listed.
The bill was introduced by Representatives Piwowarczyk, B. Jacobson, Brooks, Dittrich, Duchow, Gundrum, Knodl, Kreibich, Melotik, Murphy, Mursau, Nedweski, O’Connor, Penterman, Rodriguez, Spiros, Steffen and Tucker; it was cosponsored by Senators Wanggaard, Marklein, Quinn and Tomczyk.
Under previous law, “any person may circulate nomination papers for a candidate if the person is eligible to vote in Wisconsin or is a U.S. citizen aged 18 or older who, if he or she were a Wisconsin resident, would not be disqualified from voting in the state. A person is eligible to vote in Wisconsin if he or she is a U.S. citizen aged 18 or older who has resided in an election district in this state for at least 28 consecutive days,” according to the Legislative Reference Bureau’s analysis.
Under this bill, which was signed by Gov. Evers on March 27, “a person must be eligible to vote in Wisconsin in order to circulate nomination papers for a candidate. However, under the bill, nomination papers and petitions for the candidacy of candidates for the offices of president and vice president of the United States may continue to be circulated by any person eligible to vote in Wisconsin or by any U.S. citizen aged 18 or older who, if he or she were a Wisconsin resident, would not be disqualified from voting in the state.”
Evers’ release states that the bill “modifies requirements for circulating nomination and recall papers such that a person must be an eligible voter in Wisconsin to circulate papers for any office except president and vice president.”
Similarly, under previous law, “any person who is eligible to vote in Wisconsin or who is a U.S. citizen aged 18 or older and who, if he or she were a Wisconsin resident, would not be disqualified from voting in the state may circulate a recall petition,” the LRB summary states.
“Under the bill, a person must be eligible to vote in Wisconsin in order to circulate a recall petition and have the signatures on the petition be counted toward a recall,” the LRB notes.
It is called Assembly Bill 223, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 126.
Editor’s note: Jim Piwowarczyk is the co-founder of WRN.
