Wisconsin’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee will vote next week on whether the state’s elections agency should go through an audit, committee chairs announced Tuesday.
Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Randall, and Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, said in a statement yesterday the Government Accountability Board would face an audit if the committee approves on it in an April 24 vote.
“Recently, some have raised concerns about how Wisconsin oversees election and ethics requirements as well as the GAB’s complaint process,” Cowles said. “In addition, the GAB has not been audited since its creation in 2008. The audit will provide the Legislature with a general overview of the management and performance that has never before been available.”
The audit would be comprehensive, but more details on what exactly it would study would be available later this week, the statement said. The Legislative Audit Bureau is releasing a scope memo that would detail what it would study.
GAB Director Kevin Kennedy welcomed the proposed audit in a statement.
“We look forward to appearing before the Joint Audit Committee and highlighting the hard work and many accomplishments of our relatively young agency,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy added the audit would “reveal the need for adequate state resources” for the agency so that it can do its job properly. Kennedy added the GAB would ask the committee to look at the state’s “aging” voting equipment.
In 2008, lawmakers created the agency so nonpartisan elected judges could make decisions on elections and ethics. GAB replaced what was seen as a dysfunctional elections and ethics board due to the political appointees that overlooked complaints.
Last year, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the agency was not truly independent and criticized it for some of its recent decisions.
Kennedy defended the agency at the time, noting experts across the country have praised the GAB, especially given the extra work they have done in the past few years with the recall elections.
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Executive Director Mike McCabe said the agency has done a good job in managing its various tasks.
“I haven’t agreed with every decision they’ve made, but I have to say that they’ve been very evenhanded,” McCabe said. “Sometimes they come down on issues in a way that angers the Democrats, sometimes they make decisions that anger the Republicans. They’ve been criticized by people on both sides.”
McCabe pointed to a recent GAB decision that dismissed a complaint from the liberal Center for Media and Democracy. That complaint alleged lawmakers should not be able to take free trips to conferences from the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, McCabe said.
Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, worked with lawmakers to create the agency after a major scandal from lawmakers in both parties. He said although audits are good and should be done often, he is concerned about the reasons Kerkman and Cowles called for it.
“An audit is not troubling, but certainly the motivations behind why they’re calling for this are somewhat troubling,” Heck said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
