Assembly Bill 1212 mandates that all county clerks in Wisconsin perform risk-limiting audits for elections starting in 2027. A risk-limiting audit is defined as a statistical method aimed at ensuring the accuracy of election outcomes by manually inspecting random samples of paper ballots. The bill specifies that county clerks must complete these audits before certifying election results to the Elections Commission. Additionally, if a risk-limiting audit reveals discrepancies in vote counts, the manual tally will take precedence over electronic counts for official results. The bill also maintains the requirement for the Elections Commission to conduct performance audits of voting systems, ensuring that both audits work in tandem.

Furthermore, the bill alters the process for handling excess ballots when the number of ballots exceeds the number of voters recorded on the poll list. Under current law, excess ballots are drawn and not counted; however, the new legislation allows all excess ballots to be counted, with discrepancies documented in detail. If the discrepancy exceeds 0.5 percent of the total ballots cast, the Elections Commission is required to investigate the cause. The bill repeals several existing statutes related to the removal of excess ballots and introduces new provisions to ensure that all legally cast ballots are preserved and election integrity is maintained.

Statutes affected:
Bill Text: 6.875(5), 6.875, 7.51(2)(e), 7.51, 7.52(4)(e), 7.52