Wisconsin legislation · 2025-2026 Regular Session
Wisconsin SB1177: An Act to repeal 7.51 (2) (e), 7.51 (2) (em) 1., 7.51 (2) (em) 2., 7.52 (4) (e), 7.52 (4) (em) 1. and 7.52 (4) (em) 2.; to renumber 7.08 (6), 7.51 (2) (em) 3. and 7.52 (4) (em) 3.; to amend 6.875 (5), 7.51 (2) (e), 7.52 (4) (e) and 9.01 (1) (b) 4. a.; to create 7.08 (6) (b), 7.51 (2) (em), 7.52 (4) (em) and 7.58 of the statutes; Relating to: performing risk-limiting audits and eliminating the process for removing excess ballots from the vote count. (FE)
Status: Failed, May 13, 2026
What the bill says
To amend 6.875 (5), 7.51 (2) (e), 7.52 (4) (e) and 9.01 (1) (b) 4. a.; to 4create 7.08 (6) (b), 7.51 (2) (em), 7.52 (4) (em) and 7.58 of the statutes; 5relating to: performing risk-limiting audits and eliminating the process for 6removing excess ballots from the vote count. Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau Risk-limiting audits This bill requires each county clerk to perform risk-limiting audits beginning with elections held in 2027…
From the introduced text, March 19, 2026:
to amend 6.875 (5), 7.51 (2) (e), 7.52 (4) (e) and 9.01 (1) (b) 4. a.; to 4create 7.08 (6) (b), 7.51 (2) (em), 7.52 (4) (em) and 7.58 of the statutes; 5relating to: performing risk-limiting audits and eliminating the process for 6removing excess ballots from the vote count. Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau Risk-limiting audits This bill requires each county clerk to perform risk-limiting audits beginning with elections held in 2027. The bill defines a "risk-limiting audit" as an audit protocol that uses statistical methods to limit to acceptable levels the risk of certifying a preliminary election outcome that is an incorrect outcome. Under the bill, each county clerk must conduct a risk-limiting audit of selected contests for each election by manual inspection of random samples of paper ballots in randomly selected audit units. An "audit unit" is, generally, a ward, election district, reporting unit, batch, scanner feed, or other unit of vote aggregation used by a county to report electronic voting system or voting machine vote totals. The bill defines a "selected contest" as a contested statewide election for a candidate or referendum that garners the most total votes and, if available at the same election, at least one additional contested statewide election for a candidate or referendum that is randomly selected by the Elections Commission at …