In Wisconsin, undocumented immigrant workers contribute significantly to the workforce, performing labor that often goes unseen. But the exact number has proven difficult to determine. 

From outdated and cautious estimates to a lack of monitoring by state agencies, it is difficult to say for certain how many immigrants without legal status work in each industry. Quantifying the undocumented population through surveys and studies is also a challenging task. The U.S. Census doesn’t ask about or estimate the number of undocumented immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security estimates the U.S. total at 11 million as of 2022.

An estimated 70,000 undocumented immigrants live in Wisconsin, about 47,000 of whom are employed, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.  About two-thirds of those had lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more. But that information is now over five years old.

The top industries that employ undocumented workers in the state are: 

Manufacturing — estimated 11,000 workers. 

Professional, scientific, management, administrative and waste management services — estimated 8,000 workers.

Accommodation and food services, arts, entertainment and recreation — estimated 5,000 workers.

Construction — estimated 5,000 workers. 

Agriculture — estimated 5,000 workers.

A 2023 UW-Madison School for Workers survey found that over 10,000 undocumented workers perform around 70% of the labor on Wisconsin’s dairy farms. “Without them, the whole dairy industry would collapse overnight,” the researchers concluded.

This finding sparked a public debate in the wake of stricter immigration policies over the unseen, yet essential work that immigrants without legal status provide to the state’s major dairy and farming industries. 

“Obtaining accurate counts of undocumented populations is inherently challenging due to their non-legal status and potential reluctance to participate in official surveys,” said Alexandra Guevara, spokesperson for Voces de la Frontera, a Wisconsin-based immigrant rights organization. 

To complicate matters, state agencies like the Department of Administration and the Department of Public Instruction don’t keep records of the number of undocumented immigrants and workers in the state. DPI lacks this data because public schools do not ask about immigration status. 

In 2018, undocumented immigrants in Wisconsin paid an estimated $157 million in federal taxes and $101 million in state and local taxes, totaling nearly $258 million, according to the American Immigration Council. That estimate dropped slightly to a total of $240 million in federal, state and local taxes as of 2022. 

Undocumented workers make up a large percentage of the workforce in child care and domestic housework. They tend to make up a smaller portion of health care employees and are mainly employed in roles like housekeeping or janitorial and food service in both nursing homes and hospitals, according to Guevara. 

National estimates suggest that undocumented workers make up between 30% and 50% of the meatpacking workforce, according to the University of Michigan. Guevara said it is probable that Wisconsin, a major hub for meat and cheese production, follows this trend.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

How many undocumented people live and work in Wisconsin? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Wisconsin politics were shaken up this year with the signing of new legislative maps that ended over a decade of extreme and effective Republican gerrymandering.

It was the first time in Wisconsin history a Legislature and a governor of different parties agreed on legislative redistricting, the Legislative Reference Bureau told Wisconsin Watch.

In a good Republican year across the country, Wisconsin Democrats flipped 14 seats in the Legislature — largely because of those new maps. It wasn’t enough to win a majority in the Assembly or the Senate, but the resulting 54-45 and 18-15 splits better reflect Wisconsin’s swing-state status.

Wisconsin’s congressional maps were not redrawn. Republicans kept six of the state’s eight congressional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The state’s current congressional maps were drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and approved by the then-conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2022. The last time a governor of one party and a Legislature of another agreed on congressional maps was in 1991.

Evers’ maps were slightly more favorable to Democrats than the previous decade’s maps, but they didn’t change that much because the court established a “least change” rule when deciding which maps it would approve. That meant they would largely conform to the Republican maps that had been in place since 2011.

In March, the now-liberal high court denied a request to reconsider the state’s congressional maps before this year’s elections without stating a reason. Evers had asked for changes to the congressional maps soon after he signed the new legislative maps into law in February. Those maps were approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Elias Law Group filed a motion in January asking the court to revise the congressional boundaries ahead of the 2024 election. The Democratic law firm argued that new maps were justified after the court abandoned the “least change” approach when deciding on the legislative map challenge last year. In that case, the state Supreme Court said it would no longer favor maps that present minimal changes to existing boundaries.

Democrats argued that Evers’ congressional boundaries drawn in 2022 were decided under the “least change” restrictions later thrown out by the court in the legislative redistricting case.

Republicans pushed back, arguing that newly elected liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz prejudged the case during her 2023 campaign. They requested she recuse herself from the case. But Protasiewicz said she decided not to vote on the motion to reconsider the congressional maps because she wasn’t on the court when the underlying case was decided.

Republican Party of Wisconsin chair Brian Schimming in a statement called the court’s decision “the demise of Governor Evers’ latest attempt to throw out his own hand-drawn congressional maps.”

Republicans have retained control of six of Wisconsin’s eight House seats, with Democratic Reps. Mark Pocan and Gwen Moore safely controlling the two districts that cover Madison and Milwaukee. In comparison, Democrats held five of the eight seats in 2010 — the year before Republicans redrew the maps.

The 1st and 3rd districts are currently the only competitive congressional districts in Wisconsin, represented by Republican Reps. Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden respectively. Steil won his race this month with 54% of the vote, and Van Orden won with 51.4% of the vote.

Conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler and Justice Rebecca Bradley in their concurrence wrote the new majority’s “reckless abandonment of settled legal precedent” in the legislative redistricting case “incentivizes litigants to bring politically divisive cases to this court regardless of their legal merit.”

Representatives of Elias Law Group did not respond to Wisconsin Watch when asked if they anticipate another legal challenge to the congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“I remain very interested between now and 2030 in trying to find a way to get the court to … tell us whether partisan gerrymandering violates the Wisconsin Constitution. I believe it does,” Jeff Mandell, founder of the liberal legal group Law Forward, told Wisconsin Watch. “I believe the court will say it does when we present the right case.”

But Mandell said nothing has been drafted, and his group won’t bring a case to the Supreme Court unless it has “got the goods.”

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

Why were state legislative districts redrawn for 2024, but congressional districts remain unchanged? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

No. During Wisconsin elections, such as the upcoming general election on Nov. 5, regular voters may only cast ballots in person at a polling location or by mailing an absentee ballot.

The website myvote.wi.gov enables Wisconsin residents to register online and request a paper absentee ballot. For voters who are already registered, Oct. 31 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot. All absentee ballots must be received by municipal clerks by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

However, there are exceptions for military and overseas voters.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, enacted in 1986, enables members of the U.S. Uniformed Services, the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Merchant Marine; their family members and U.S. citizens residing outside the country to electronically request and receive voter registration and absentee ballot applications and blank absentee ballots.

​​Thirty-one states — but not Wisconsin — along with Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands allow some voters, including those in the military or overseas, to return ballots electronically, via fax, email or through an online portal.​ ​​Wisconsin only allows those types of voters to request and receive absentee ballots electronically, but they must return hard copies via the post.

Overseas voters must request their absentee ballots by 5 p.m. Oct. 31. 

Military voters away from home must request their absentee ballots before 5 p.m. on Election Day and return them to their municipal clerk by 8 p.m., which while theoretically possible, is unlikely to be successful when voting in Wisconsin. 

The federal Voting Assistance Program recommends returning completed ballots 11 to 35 calendar days before the election to be counted, depending on the location of the uniformed service member or their eligible family.

Citing cybersecurity concerns, a federal interagency group issued guidance in 2020 to increase state election officials’ awareness of the risks associated with electronic ballot delivery and return. The four agencies recommended paper ballots, saying remote voting is “vulnerable to systemic disruption.”

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

I’m out of town now. Is there a way to vote in Wisconsin elections online? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

A reader sent Ask Wisconsin Watch a question about how the state compares with other states in various categories related to transportation, education, health care, parks and local funding. Here’s a look at how health and wellness ranks in Wisconsin.

Across various measures of health and wellness, Wisconsin ranked 22nd based on data from America’s Health Rankings’ 2023 annual report. On the horizontal axis, the graphic indicates what percentage of people in the state are impacted by the issue. The specifics of each measure can be found here. Wisconsin’s worst rankings were in obesity, housing with lead risk, racial disparities in premature death and low birthweight and excessive, heavy and binge drinking. 

Excessive drinking is the percentage of adults who reported binge or heavy drinking. Binge drinking is four or more drinks on one occasion for females and five or more drinks for males. Heavy drinking is defined as eight or more drinks per week for females and 15 or more for males.

Compared with the national average of 18.4% of adults, 21.6% of adults in Wisconsin drink excessively. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, excessive drinking can cause long-term damage to the heart, liver, pancreas and immune system. It has also been linked to multiple forms of cancer. Revisit our past coverage of Wisconsin’s deadly problem with excessive drinking.

Wisconsin also ranked 49th, tied with Michigan, for money spent on public health. The national average was $183 per person — Wisconsin and Michigan both spent $128 per person.

Wisconsin ranked well in crowded housing, cancer screenings, voter participation and high school graduation rates. The national average voter participation was 59.5% while 67.3% of eligible voters in Wisconsin participated in the last presidential and national midterm elections.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

DataWatch: Overall, Wisconsin’s health is above average in the United States is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Wisconsin continues to stand out among Midwest states as one of few that haven’t legalized medicinal and recreational marijuana, and fingers have long pointed to the Tavern League of Wisconsin as the main adversary to legalization.

But according to public lobbying records — which organizations attempting to influence policy must report with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission — the trade association has never lobbied for or against it, nor does it take a stance on the issue, according to the Tavern League’s government affairs spokesperson Scott Stenger. 

“We will not weigh in on that issue, it’s just not something our members care about,” Stenger said.

Stenger said the Tavern League takes the lobbying reporting laws very seriously. Despite countering the claims that the league opposes marijuana legalization, he said he still receives calls from people who are “belligerent” over the issue.

“It would seem to me that there’d be more reasons for us to support than oppose, but we never have,” Stenger said. “This idea that if you legalize marijuana, people aren’t going to go to taverns — marijuana is legal in a lot of states, and the on-premise industry hasn’t declined. So there’s no correlation whatsoever.”

Then why do so many believe the Tavern League is against marijuana?

Studies on whether the legalization of cannabis products leads to a decrease in alcohol sales have shown mixed results. Data from a study in Canada showed that cannabis legalization was associated with a decline in beer sales, though not spirits sales, implying marijuana is being used as a substitute for beer.

But a study of Washington, Colorado and Oregon — three U.S. states where recreational cannabis has been legal the longest — found no evidence that legalization has impacted total alcohol sales. 

So who actually is lobbying against marijuana legalization in Wisconsin? 

Since 2003, three interest groups have lobbied directly against bills that would have legalized medicinal and/or recreational marijuana: Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association and Wisconsin Medical Society. 

The Medical Society has lobbied against legalizing medicinal use for years. The last time the group lobbied directly on a medical marijuana bill in the Legislature was in 2022. The association still opposes medicinal legalization, according to its chief policy and advocacy officer Mark Grapentine. 

“Medicines” are substances approved by the FDA after rigorous testing to make sure any drug is effective and safe, Grapentine told Wisconsin Watch. 

“We do not support so-called ‘medical’ marijuana schemes because they are designed to sound like marijuana research has gone through that kind of trusted process, but it has not,” he said. 

The Medical Society does support moving marijuana to a place in the Controlled Substances Act that allows for more widespread study and clinical research for the development of cannabis medicines.

“I think it’s one of those perpetual issues — it’s always either ‘medical’ marijuana of some kind or full-blown legalization,” Grapentine said in an email when asked about the future of marijuana bills in the Legislature.

In 2022, 2017 and 2015, the Chiefs of Police Association lobbied against both recreational and medicinal marijuana legislation. The association declined to comment for this story.

Wisconsin Family Action lobbied against one of the most recent marijuana bills in the Legislature in 2023. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Melissa Agard, would have legalized both recreational and medicinal cannabis. It died in the state Senate. 

Wisconsin Family Action did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s repeated requests for comment. In 2022, the group released a statement saying “Christians should oppose” Gov. Tony Evers and included his support for recreational marijuana legalization as one of the reasons.

In 2010 and 2019, the Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs Association lobbied against bipartisan bills that would have established a medical necessity defense to marijuana-related prosecutions. When asked what the group’s current stance on marijuana is, business manager Sandy Schueller said “we aren’t taking a formal position until we see the official legislation during the next session of the Legislature.”

In 2019, the Badger State Sheriffs’ Association also lobbied against bipartisan legislation that would have established a medical use defense, as well as a medical cannabis registry. The association president, Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt, told Wisconsin Watch the group remains opposed to both medical and recreational marijuana.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

Does the Tavern League of Wisconsin lobby against recreational marijuana? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

C. Reiss Terminals, a Great Lakes shipping company, has been transporting coal for more than 135 years from its dock in downtown Green Bay. 

Locals and lawmakers have long complained about the fugitive dust that blows from its iconic coal piles into the surrounding low-income neighborhoods, whose residents — nearly half of whom are people of color — disproportionately bear the effects. 

Officials hope to relocate the business, which occupies 35 acres along the Fox River near Mason Street. They unsuccessfully tried for years to identify a new site that meets the company’s operating needs.

But they found one at the now-razed J. P. Pulliam Generating Station, which shuttered in 2018. Brown County purchased the site of the former Public Service Corp. coal power plant three years later and intends to lease it to C. Reiss. But it would first need to transform the property — which is located in an industrial area at the Fox River’s mouth, more than a half mile from the closest residence — into a functioning port.

The city and the county have amassed more than $30 million in local, state and federal dollars for the project. Still, its future is unclear after the proposal wasn’t selected for another federal grant valued at $25 million. Local government leaders say they remain committed to seeing the project through.

The coal piles would not actually be moved, but rather drawn down by C. Reiss as coal is simultaneously deposited at the new site, where the power plant also stored coal outdoors for more than a century.

Coal piles release dust and gases as they are exposed to air. Long-term inhalation of coal dust can lead to lung and cardiovascular disease and death. C. Reiss reports its annual air emissions to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Carnegie Mellon University economists found that airborne particulates detected within 25 miles downwind of coal power plants increased alongside coal deliveries and the size of coal stockpiles. And as ambient fine particulates increased, so did the areas’ death rates.

“There may be relatively low-cost policy interventions to reduce the air pollution from coal piles,” study co-author Akshaya Jha said. “Covering the coal piles up. There are water-based or even chemical-based liquids that you can spray periodically on the coal pile to reduce the coal dust coming from the pile.”

Additionally, acidic runoff containing heavy metals forms when it rains on coal piles. The Wisconsin DNR regulates businesses that generate industrial stormwater and requires C. Reiss to follow a stormwater pollution prevention plan to reduce the risk of its coal piles polluting local water supplies.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

What are the health risks of coal piles like the ones in Green Bay? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

A reader recently asked whether Amtrak’s Hiawatha passenger train service between Chicago and Milwaukee is notoriously tardy because it shares tracks with freight trains.

It’s a topical question because Amtrak has recently inaugurated Borealis, a second daily service between Chicago and Minneapolis with several stops in Wisconsin including Milwaukee, Portage and La Crosse. Like the Hiawatha train, it’s on Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s railroad, which Amtrak gives its highest marks among the half dozen Class I railroads whose tracks host its passenger trains.

State transit planners are also studying expanding Amtrak’s Hiawatha service westward to Madison and Eau Claire and north to connect the Fox Cities and Green Bay with passenger trains.

The Hiawatha train runs seven times daily along 82 miles of track connecting Milwaukee with Chicago’s Union Station. Nearly two-thirds of the track is owned by CPKC while the rest belongs to Metra, Chicago’s metro area commuter rail system. 

Amtrak doesn’t dispatch its own trains though federal law says priority should go to passengers before freight. Even so, the host railroads, which decide which trains get priority at signals, has a patchy record of giving Amtrak trains preference. That makes all the difference for keeping passenger trains running on schedule.

So how does that Hiawatha train that connects the largest cities in Wisconsin and Illinois fare? The most recent data show around 88 out of 100 trains pull into the station within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival. Sometimes it’s even better. And that actually makes the Milwaukee-Chicago line the second most punctual service in the nation’s intercity rail network. 

“We do very well,” Amtrak regional spokesperson Marc Magliari said. “These trains run pretty reliably.”

More than 40% of the delays on the line are attributed to shared commuter rail traffic operated by Metra, according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s most recent quarterly report. That’s not to say freight interference isn’t an issue for Amtrak elsewhere in the nation. There are some services with dismal records: The Southwest Chief, a 2,265-mile route between Chicago and Los Angeles, is late more than half the time, with the passenger carrier blaming host railroad BNSF for much of the problem.

It’s a challenge that has vexed Amtrak’s leadership since its inception. The national intercity rail network was created in 1970 as a public sector operator to assume responsibility for unprofitable intercity passenger routes that had been in service since the 1800s. 

But part of the deal — codified by Congress in 1973 — was that railway dispatchers would give priority to passenger trains over their own freight to maintain reliability in the system.

For those who have ridden the trains, that’s not often the case. For decades Amtrak’s passenger trains have been plagued by delays. For some longer-distance routes nearly half of the trains are more than 15 minutes late — though often even longer.

Amtrak claims railroads have ignored the law or objected that it applies to them. In 2008, Congress added more teeth to enforcing the law, but the nation’s railroads fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Amtrak’s favor. But it has been a slow process and the outcome is still uncertain.

Magliari said Amtrak realizes the single largest determination for customer satisfaction is punctuality. 

“The train crew could be sweet and nice. The food on the train can be sweet and nice,” he said. “But if we sell you a ticket — and we don’t deliver you on the schedule on that ticket — chances are you’re not going to rate the trip very well.”

The passenger rail carrier is fighting back. Flush from its victory in the courts, it filed a petition last year asking federal regulators to investigate Union Pacific, which it says is illegally delaying its Sunset Limited Service that runs between Los Angeles and New Orleans. 

The Surface Transportation Board has agreed to investigate Amtrak’s complaints in what it says is the “first of its kind” case that tests the rail industry’s legal responsibility to give preference to passenger trains.

The case continues, and its outcome could have an impact on the reliability of America’s expanding passenger rail network.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

Is freight traffic the cause of Amtrak delays between Milwaukee and Chicago? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

During a town board meeting last year, residents in the town of Erin suggested holding an advisory referendum to gauge whether the community supported allowing all-terrain and utility vehicles on town roads. They learned such a plebiscite is no longer possible.

Although Wisconsin residents can’t bypass the Legislature via a petition to enact — or reject — a new state law or amend the constitution, the situation varies at the municipal level.

For instance, residents of Wisconsin cities and villages can, with some restrictions, establish or amend local ordinances by petition and popular vote.

Previously, local governments could present advisory referendums to the electorate to gauge public opinion on nearly anything. Questions have addressed topics ranging from marijuana legalization to gerrymandering.

But following a change to state law in June 2023, local county and municipal governments are now limited in the types of advisory questions they can ask voters. Subjects concerning proposed expenditures funded with property tax revenue, shared revenue, boundary changes, telecommunication and municipal cable service are OK. Everything else is off limits.

The loss of local authority resulted from a provision tucked into a contentious omnibus bill introduced during the 2023-24 legislative session by Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc, and Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk. The legislation overhauled shared revenue, repealed a property tax on business inventory and set conditions for a Milwaukee sales tax. It passed with bipartisan support, and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed it into law.

Rep. Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, introduced an amendment that removed the measure from the bill, but lawmakers voted it down along party lines.

Critics of local advisory referendums, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said local measures inappropriately targeted policy matters, such as abortion, that are decided by the state.

“It makes no sense to use the ballot as a way to try to achieve some interest group’s political goal,” Vos said at a Milwaukee Press Club event. “We should have had advisory referenda only for things that are directly related to what is being done in that municipality.”

Matt Rothschild, then-executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, decried the measure as unconstitutional in written testimony submitted during a public hearing.

“You are telling all of us that you don’t even want to hear from us and that we can’t even express ourselves in advisory referendums on public issues through our local governments,” he said.

The power to present non-binding ballot questions to the electorate is still granted to the Wisconsin Legislature. During the 2023 spring election, ballots contained an advisory question concerning welfare benefit work requirements, which voters overwhelmingly supported.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

Why couldn’t a southeast Wisconsin town hold an advisory referendum on ATV/UTV use on local roads? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Wisconsin funds its state transportation system mostly through a gas tax and various vehicle registration fees. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a proposal to study a mileage-based fee system in 2019, but national efforts are underway to expand such systems as vehicles become more fuel-efficient.

Wisconsin charges $85 to register an automobile with the state, with certain larger vehicles — tractors, trucks, buses — costing more.

It costs an extra $75 to register a hybrid vehicle and $175 to register an electric vehicle, an amount that increased $75 in the most recent state budget. Hybrid and electric vehicle owners pay more to make up for losses in gas tax revenue.

Certain municipalities and counties also assess additional “wheel taxes.” In Madison, for example, in addition to the $85 state fee, residents must pay a $40 registration fee to the city and another $28 to Dane County.

Wisconsin’s main source of road funding is the gas tax, currently 31 cents per gallon, which accounts for 45% of funding. The vehicle registration fees cover 30%.

In the 2019-21 budget the Republican-controlled Legislature approved spending $2.5 million for the Department of Transportation to study mileage-based vehicle registration fees. But Evers vetoed it because he objected “to the financing of another study that will show, yet again, that the motor fuel tax is the most effective way to approximate a user fee of roadway use and the most cost-effective way to collect revenue.”

The 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included $75 million for state and local grants to pilot mileage-based vehicle registration programs. The latest round of grant applications is due May 27.

The state Department of Transportation did not respond to questions about whether it plans to apply for the pilot. Evers’ office noted the last three budgets have taken multiple steps to increase road funding, including most recently dedicating $800 million for road projects and moving the amount of electric vehicle sales tax revenue from the state’s general fund to the transportation fund.

Other U.S. states assess vehicle registration fees in a variety of ways. Some charge based on the type of vehicle. Others charge based on the vehicle’s weight. In some places, registration costs change as a vehicle gets older.

Last year Hawaii became the first state to adopt a mandatory mileage-based registration fee system. The state already requires annual vehicle inspections, and now electric vehicle owners must switch from set fees to a mileage-based system by mid-2028. Other vehicles will be required to do so by the end of 2033.

Oregon, Utah and Virginia have an opt-in mileage-based system primarily for electric vehicles, and Connecticut has a program for trucks, according to Barbara Rohde, executive director of the Mileage-Based User Fee Alliance, of which the Wisconsin DOT is a member.

“There’s interest in Wisconsin,” Rohde said based on feedback she got from a panel discussion in Madison last year. “The gas mileage in all the vehicles that we’re driving are getting so much better fuel efficiency and that has an impact. … I’m hopeful that Wisconsin will be really a part of a real trajectory in the Midwest to look at this.”

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

Why doesn’t the cost of car registration in Wisconsin depend on miles driven? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Yes, though it won’t be listed on the ballot as “uncommitted.”

Instead, when Wisconsinites participating in April’s Democratic presidential primary go to cast their ballots, they’ll be presented with four options: Joe Biden, Dean Phillips, Uninstructed Delegation or to write in an unlisted name.

Biden, the incumbent president, has already secured enough votes to receive the nomination, and Phillips, a U.S. congressman, has dropped out of the race. But Democrats in other states recently drew attention for protesting Biden’s nomination for a second term by selecting “uncommitted.”

A vote for uninstructed delegation is a voter telling delegates to vote for whoever they think is best at August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, including Biden, said Derek Clinger, a senior staff attorney with the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative — provided that enough voters cast their ballots for the uncommitted option. 

While Wisconsinites cast their ballots in the presidential primary, party delegates pick the nominee. Each state has a certain number of delegates, who are pledged to support candidates who receive enough votes in a state’s presidential primary election or caucus. Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally based on how much of the vote candidates capture.

In Wisconsin a candidate must receive 15% of the vote either statewide or in a particular congressional district to receive delegates, according to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s 2024 delegate selection plan. Wisconsin has 95 delegates to distribute. A candidate needs 1,968 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, a threshold Biden surpassed on March 12.

In Wisconsin’s Republican primary, voters will have seven options, including uninstructed delegation. There are 41 delegates up for grabs in that contest. Three delegates are awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes in each of the state’s eight congressional districts, with the rest of the delegates being awarded to the winner of the statewide vote. Like Biden, former President Donald Trump has already secured the needed delegates to clinch his party’s nomination.

Some Democratic primary voters have voted uncommitted in recent elections to protest Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In Minnesota, for example, “uncommitted” received almost 19% of the vote. It received a little more than 13% in Michigan.

In Wisconsin, an advocacy group called Listen to Wisconsin is encouraging Democrats to vote uninstructed next month, carrying on protests of Biden’s response to the crisis in the Middle East.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

Is ‘uncommitted’ an option for the Wisconsin Democratic primary? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

The way the Wisconsin Elections Commission handles complaints filed against the agency, a specific commissioner or a member of the commission’s staff has evolved since the commission launched in 2016.

Recent complaints filed against WEC, a commissioner or agency staff have largely been “disposed of without consideration by the commission.”

The elections commission maintains that it takes this approach because any such complaint “warrants an ethical recusal by the body,” according to a recent dismissal of a complaint filed against the agency’s six commissioners.

“The Commission’s position reflects the need to avoid conflicts associated with an adjudicative body deciding a matter brought against itself, similar to the provisions of law and ethics precluding a judge from presiding over a case filed against herself, or someone with personal or professional ties to her,” WEC attorney Angela Sharpe wrote to Kirk Bangstad, a liberal activist who filed a complaint against the commissioners after they permitted former President Donald Trump to appear on Wisconsin’s primary ballot.

The commission has previously hired outside attorneys to review complaints filed against the agency, the commissioners or agency staff.

“In recent years, the commission has trended toward returning such complaints to the complainant, noting that they may pursue their matter through other avenues,” WEC spokesperson Riley Vetterkind told Wisconsin Watch.

He added “each complaint is unique and may require a different approach.”

For example, if a complaint is returned by the commission, the complainant can ask a county circuit court to intervene.

The commission’s current practice of returning complaints filed against itself, a commissioner or a staff member without consideration is consistent with a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. The high court, in a 4-3 decision concerning unmanned absentee ballot drop boxes, agreed that “it would be nonsensical to have WEC adjudicate a claim against itself.”

Why does the Wisconsin Elections Commission get to determine if any complaint against itself is valid? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

Question: Are Wisconsin’s fake electors going to be charged and prosecuted?

The most straightforward answer to this question three years after 10 Republicans gathered in Wisconsin’s Capitol to cast unauthorized 2020 electoral votes for Donald Trump is: We still don’t know.

Charges stemming from criminal investigations often remain under wraps until prosecutors announce them. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul and other state Department of Justice officials have maintained for months that they cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation into the incident.

A DOJ spokesperson reiterated that line to Wisconsin Watch after the 10 settled a lawsuit, in part, by admitting they were part of a scheme to overturn the election.

Then, late last week, CNN reported that the Wisconsin Department of Justice was investigating the fake elector scheme. Citing unnamed sources, CNN said that Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney central to Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, was cooperating with state investigators in Michigan and Wisconsin, the first indication of an investigation in Wisconsin.

The civil lawsuit was filed by a pair of electors for Joe Biden, who won Wisconsin in 2020 by about 20,000 votes. Under the terms of the settlement, the 10 Republicans agreed to withdraw their bogus paperwork, not serve as electors in any race where Trump is on the ballot and acknowledge Biden’s victory. There is no financial element to the settlement, though the Biden electors initially sought as much as $200,000 from each of the false Trump electors.

Attorneys representing the Biden electors in the lawsuit have advocated for criminal charges against the false Trump electors. They have written to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne requesting they investigate the false Republican electors.

While no Wisconsin prosecutor has acknowledged an investigation into the matter, officials in other states have charged the false electors in those states.

In July the 16 false electors who produced similar paperwork in Michigan were hit with felony charges by the state attorney general. A handful of Republicans who posed as false Trump electors in Georgia also face charges. And a grand jury in Nevada last week indicted the six Republicans who posed as false electors for Trump.

Are Wisconsin’s fake electors going to be charged and prosecuted? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.