The Government Accountability Board is a crucial organization, which bears the responsibility for ensuring we have fair and balanced elections.

In the wake of a 2007 scandal in the Wisconsin Capitol, in which top officials from both parties were conducting campaign work from their state offices, the previous body responsible for election oversight was disbanded and the Legislature formed the GAB.

The nonpartisan board is comprised of former judges and has since been held up as a model for other states seeking to enforce fair elections.

Now the Republicans in the Legislature attempting to ram through a bill to split up the GAB into two different, partisan boards — a return to the exact same ineffective model that led to the top-tier scandal and creation of the GAB less than a decade ago.

Assembly Republicans introduce bill to dismantle Government Accountability Board

The change from a nonpartisan commission to a partisan board to monitor elections is a dangerous idea.

The boards would supposedly be made up of six people — three Democrats and three Republicans — all nominated by the governor and approved by the Senate, both of which are in Republican control.

These split boards will make it impossible to reach agreement and will perpetually be stuck in deadlock.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Rick Hasen, an elections expert at the University of California-Irvine School of Law, called the proposal “a deliberate attempt to doom effective enforcement of Wisconsin election laws.”

The idea that a partisan board will be able to be more nonpartisan than a nonpartisan board is an astounding contradiction.

Republicans are using the John Doe investigation of Gov. Scott Walker as proof the GAB exceeded its bounds.

The investigation was concerning the fundraising of Walker during the 2012 recall election. The state Supreme Court ordered the investigation to cease. The court has a heavy conservative majority in line with the ideology of Walker.

It is, however, the job of the GAB to investigate allegations of misconduct. But the moment the GAB began an investigation into serious allegations against a governor of their party, Republicans decided the system was broken, calling for more control in the hands of the Republican Legislature and governor.

Republicans took their bitterness over this investigation even further when the Assembly passed a bill — along partisan lines — banning John Doe investigations into political crimes.

Republicans didn’t like Walker being investigated, so they simply got rid of the ability to investigate political crimes at all. During the debate of the bill, Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin, went so far as to compare the investigations of Walker allies to Nazi Germany home invasions during WWII.

When we begin comparing investigation of political crimes to Nazis, we are heading down a very dangerous path.

The polarization of today’s political climate is even further evidence of the inevitable dysfunction of partisan elections and ethics boards. The GAB was approved nearly unanimously in 2007, but the current proposal is set to be a party line vote, with no Democrats voting in favor of the bill.

Even if the Republican narrative that the GAB needs fixing were true, which it isn’t, the way to fix a nonpartisan commission is not by replacing it with partisan boards.

This is a recipe for corruption in Wisconsin politics.

Republicans are trying to protect their current glory days with full control of state government. Overall, Wisconsin has always been a state with a proud history of clean government.

Walker’s divide-and-conquer strategy in Wisconsin has ushered in an age of extreme polarization that continually culminates in the passage of harmful legislation. This is yet another example of Walker’s Wisconsin.

August McGinnity-Wake ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and environmental studies.