Wisconsin voters Tuesday voted down two referendum questions that sought to give the state legislators more power over distributing federal funding, a move that could have upended how billions of dollars are spent in the state.
The result was a win for Democrats, who pushed for a “no” vote, characterizing the ballot questions as an attempted power-grab by Republicans.
With more than 50% of the vote reported, 58% of voters voted down both questions. The Associated Press called the results.
A majority of Wisconsin voters must vote in favor of a constitutional amendment in order for it to go into effect.
Because a majority of voters selected “no,” the Legislature will not be prohibited from delegating its power to appropriate money and the governor will not be required to earn legislative approval in the form of a joint resolution before expending federal funds appropriated to the state.
The outcome of the two referendums bucked the trend in Wisconsin — voters typically ratify them. Out of the 200 times lawmakers have proposed changes to the state Constitution since 1854, voters have only rejected the changes about 50 times, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau.
It seemed that not all Republican primary voters supported the amendments, according to Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center.
“Either the messaging from Republican and conservative leaders did not fully penetrate or the confusing legal language led some Republicans to vote ‘no’ rather than enact something they were unsure about,” Burden said. “Democrats did put some money into the campaign to defeat the amendments and their message appears to have reached their primary voters.”
Referendums stemmed from Republicans’ frustration over Evers’ COVID-19 spending
The questions were put forward by Republicans after clashes over Gov. Tony Evers’ power to distribute billions of dollars in coronavirus relief money.
The governor’s broad power to allocate federal funds came into focus in 2020 when $5.7 billion in relief came to the state from federal laws known as the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan Act, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act. That gave the governor sole discretion over at least $3.7 billion of that total — a power Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully sought to diminish or remove in several pieces of legislation.
Throughout March and April of that year, lawmakers refused to come into session to make decisions about portions of the CARES Act that weren’t under Evers’ sole discretion. GOP legislative leaders didn’t schedule floor sessions to pass the legislation until the week of April 13, three weeks after the federal CARES Act was passed. As a result, Wisconsin lost $25 million in federal funding to help pay for unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic because Republicans who control the Legislature didn’t act quickly enough.
Republicans and Evers have routinely disagreed over spending decisions throughout his term. The GOP Legislature curbed many of Evers’ initiatives and thwarted his efforts to enact legislation through executive actions or special sessions. For example, the Legislature’s Republican-led budget-writing committee made $6.8 billion in cuts to Evers’ proposed 2023-25 spending plan, rejecting increases in spending on schools and federal funding to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin.
The conservative think tank Badger Institute and conservative Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce also supported the ballot questions.
Republicans argued that legislators should maintain authority over state spending and noted that had the provisions passed they would apply to both Republican and Democratic governors and legislatures in the future.
Democrats put out messaging strongly opposing the amendments
Democrats endorsed a no to both amendments, arguing they would broadly affect federal funds and would introduce more red tape that would slow emergency funding for natural disasters or health crises. The party has also bashed the amendments’ language as deliberately confusing and intentionally scheduled for a low-turnout election.
The party created a Vote No website and held press conferences across the state to encourage a “no” vote. A coalition of 16 voting rights groups, including the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Fair Maps Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters, urged voters to choose no as well. A “Vote No” website and tool guide said changes to the constitution would “add red tape and slow the government’s ability to respond to emergencies” and pointed out that current legislators were elected under gerrymandered voting maps.
Evers himself was outspoken on the referendums. During Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s rally in Eau Claire last week, Evers spent part of his speech encouraging the crowd of about 12,000 to vote “no,” and said the amendments would “erode our state’s checks and balances” and make it “harder for me to do my job and other governors to do their job.”
In Wisconsin’s April 2 presidential primary election, voters passed two referendum questions on their ballots that asked about the use of private funds in election administration and the role of election officials. Tuesday’s were the first time referendums have appeared on an August primary ballot in Wisconsin.
This year, five amendment questions will be brought to a referendum in total — the most in a single year since 1982, when 10 amendments were ratified.
Democrats on Tuesday night celebrated the victory. Evers praised the referendum’s “no” vote as result of his administration’s effort to stabilize Wisconsin’s economy during the pandemic, saying “the proof of our hard work is in the pudding.”
“This was a referendum on our administration’s work and the future for Wisconsin we’ve been working hard to build together, and the answer is reflected in the people’s vote tonight,” Evers said.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler in a statement said voters “defeated an attempt by MAGA politicians to bend our Constitution.”
“Wisconsin Democrats are proud to have organized to defeat these risky and misleading constitutional amendments—marking only the second time since 1996 that a constitutional amendment has been defeated at the ballot box,” Wikler said. “Republican politicians in Madison pushed these amendments because they recognized their grip on power was waning with new, fair maps, and they were desperate to cement their extreme agenda into Wisconsin’s Constitution.”
