The Wisconsin Elections Commission is a regulatory agency of the State of Wisconsin established on June 30, 2016 to administer and enforce election laws in the state. The Wisconsin Ethics Commission was also created to administer campaign finance, ethics and lobbying laws. The two commissions replaced the previous Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB).
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Membership
The Commission is made up of six members, two of which are appointed by the Governor, and one each by the President of the Senate, the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Assembly Minority Leader.
The staff of the Commission are non-partisan, and are led by an administrator appointed by the commission and who requires to be confirmed by the Wisconsin Senate. Mike Haas, who had been administrator of the elections division at GAB, was appointed administrator, for a four-year term, effective June 30, 2016.
History
The law to create the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, 2015 Wisconsin Act 118, was signed into law on December 16, 2015 by Governor Scott Walker. The two Commissions formally came into existence on June 30, 2016.
On November 25, 2016, the Commission received a petition from Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein for a hand recount of the votes in the state from the 2016 presidential election. On November 28, the Commission rejected Stein's request for a hand recount.