The Wisconsin Elections Commission declined to vote Wednesday on whether the state’s top elections official should appear before a state Senate hearing on her reappointment as a fight continues over who will lead elections in the critical battleground state ahead of the 2024 presidential race. Without clear instructions from commissioners, it is up to Meagan Wolfe, the […]
Author Archives: Harm Venhuizen / Associated Press
Harm Venhuizen is a state government reporter with The Associated Press in Madison, Wisconsin, primarily covering elections and voting rights. Prior to this, Venhuizen interned at Military Times. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he served as editor-in-chief of Chimes, the student paper. During his time at Chimes, he earned recognition for his investigative coverage of controversial personnel decisions, sexual assault and university employment policies against same-sex marriage. Venhuizen grew up on a small farm in rural Wisconsin, and spent a summer working as a wildfire firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service.
Posted inGovernment
Wisconsin judge dismisses lawsuit over military voting lists
A Wisconsin judge has dismissed a lawsuit that came in response to the actions of a top Milwaukee elections official who falsely requested military absentee ballots.
Posted inEducation
Wisconsin governor signs bill overhauling elementary reading education
Schools will emphasize phonics and administer more testing in grades K-3 to improve literacy.
Posted inGovernment
Tony Evers scales back GOP tax cut, extends K-12 funding growth in Wisconsin budget
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed off on a two-year spending plan Wednesday after dramatically scaling back the size of a Republican income tax cut that would have moved the state closer to a flat rate.
Posted inGovernment
Vote casts confusion on future of Wisconsin’s top elections official
A vote on the future of Wisconsin’s top elections official ended in partisan deadlock Tuesday amid Republican calls for the nonpartisan administrator of the statewide elections commission to resign over how she ran the 2020 presidential contest.
Posted inGovernment
Republicans seek $3.5B tax cut favoring top earners, $32M reduction for UW System
Income taxes would be cut across the board by $3.5 billion under a plan announced Thursday by Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature’s budget-writing committee, a proposal that Democrats assailed as being skewed to benefit the wealthy. Republicans also plan to cut the University of Wisconsin System’s budget by $32 million despite a projected record-high […]
Posted inJustice & Safety, News & Announcements
Scent like marijuana enough to warrant police search, Wisconsin Supreme Court rules
A car smelling like marijuana is enough for police in Wisconsin to justify searching a person in the vehicle, even though substances legal in the state can smell the same, the state Supreme Court said on Tuesday. The court’s conservative majority ruled 4-3 that Marshfield police had grounds to search the driver of a vehicle […]
Posted inGovernment
Wisconsin’s top elections official for 2024 uncertain as incumbent’s term nears end
Wisconsin’s top elections official is nearing the end of her term, and uncertainty looms over who will hold the position through the 2024 presidential election.
Posted inGovernment
Wisconsin lawmaker says his bar where overdose victims bought drugs isn’t ‘bad establishment’
Police in Wisconsin say drugs laced with fentanyl that killed one person and caused three more to overdose were purchased at a bar owned by a state lawmaker.
Posted inGovernment
Kids could fill labor shortages, even in bars, if these lawmakers succeed
Lawmakers in several states are looking to loosen child labor laws, even as the federal government cracks down on surging violations.
Posted inEnvironment
Judge signals hesitance to shut down pipeline, pleads with Wisconsin tribe to work with oil company
A federal judge signaled Thursday he will not force an energy company to shut down an oil pipeline in northern Wisconsin, despite arguments from a Native American tribe that the line is at immediate risk of being exposed by erosion and rupturing on reservation land.
Posted inGovernment
Wisconsin election officials want to revive ‘critical’ plan
Election officials in battleground Wisconsin hope to revive a bipartisan plan they say is critical to rebuilding confidence in elections but that was killed last week by Republicans without debate. The state’s chief elections official said a new division designed to handle voters’ concerns and deal with an onslaught of records requests and complaints was […]