May 14, 2025
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (“WILL”) supports a bill aimed at ensuring that Wisconsin electors who file election-related complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (“WEC”) have a statutory right, upon receiving an adverse determination from WEC, to seek judicial review of that determination in the Wisconsin court system.¹
Under Wisconsin law, specifically Wis. Stat. § 5.06, the Wisconsin Legislature established a mechanism for Wisconsin voters to file complaints against local election officials with WEC. Subject to certain administrative requirements, WEC is statutorily required to review these complaints and then issue a determination on the merits, which may include ordering an election official to conform his or her conduct to the law.
Prior to the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s recent decision in Brown v. Wisconsin Elections Commission,² the party against whom WEC issued its decision under Wis. Stat. § 5.06(6)—either the complainant or the election official whose conduct was challenged—was believed to have an automatic, statutorily-created right to seek judicial review of that decision under Wis. Stat. § 5.06(8).
However, in Brown, the Wisconsin Supreme Court concluded that the party who loses before WEC does not have an automatic right to seek judicial review of such decisions.³ This holding has created uncertainty regarding when complainants do or do not have the right to seek judicial review of WEC decisions issued under Wis. Stat. § 5.06(6), necessitating a change to the language of the statute.
The bill that WILL supports seeks to resolve this uncertainty by amending the language in Wis. Stat. § 5.06(8) to clarify that the party who loses before WEC is automatically permitted to seek judicial review of that decision.
Wis. Stat. § 5.06(8) currently reads:
(8) Any election official or complainant who is aggrieved by an order issued under sub. (6) may appeal the decision of the commission to circuit court for the county where the official conducts business or the complainant resides no later than 30 days after issuance of the order. Pendency of an appeal does not stay the effect of an order unless the court so orders.
The bill supported by WILL adds the bolded language below:
(8) Any election official or complainant who is aggrieved by an order issued under sub. (6) may appeal the decision of the commission to circuit court for the county where the official conducts business or the complainant resides no later than 30 days after issuance of the order. Pendency of an appeal does not stay the effect of an order unless the court so orders. A complainant shall be considered aggrieved under this subsection regardless of whether the complainant has suffered an injury to a legally recognized interest and may appeal any order issued under sub. (6) that dismisses the complaint or otherwise does not grant the relief requested in the complaint.
WILL is proud to support this bill and firmly believes that its enactment will promote election integrity by ensuring that all WEC decisions issued under Wis. Stat. § 5.06(6) can be reviewed in the Wisconsin court system.
References:
1 See 2025 LRB-2416
2 See Brown v. Wis. Elections Comm’n, 2025 WI 5, 414 Wis. 2d 601, 16 N.W.3d 619.
3 Id. ¶¶ 18–26.
NATHALIE BURMEISTER
Associate Counsel