The agency that administers elections in Wisconsin would be completely overhauled or outright abolished under plans proposed by all four top Republicans running to unseat Democratic Gov. Tony Evers this fall.

Construction business owner Tim Michels, the most recent entrant in the crowded field of Republicans running for governor in the Aug. 9 primary, unveiled his election plan on Thursday, which would, among other measures, repeal all previous election guidance issued by the Wisconsin Elections Commission to clerks across the state and terminate the six members of the bipartisan commission — three Republicans and three Democrats — and replace them with new appointments.

Michels’ plan would drastically alter the state Elections Commission but also stops short of calls by other top GOP contenders to completely abolish the agency, which has come under fire from Republicans for how the 2020 election was administered due to unfounded claims of widespread fraud and mounting pressure from former President Donald Trump.

“My plan is a fresh start, and allows us to bring in or bring back people who are ready to get to work to fix our elections, not make the problem worse,” Michels said in a statement.

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, the frontrunner in the race based on recent polling, issued a statement shortly after Michels’ announced his plan blasting the proposal for not going far enough.

“Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the Wisconsin Elections Commission cannot be reformed,” Kleefisch said. “It must be abolished.”

Like Kleefisch, fellow GOP gubernatorial candidates Kevin Nicholson, a business owner and former Marine, and Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, have called for a complete dismantling of the state Elections Commission. Both Ramthun and Nicholson have said they want to see the Elections Commission eliminated and oversight of elections moved to the Secretary of State’s Office. Kleefisch’s proposal entails creating a new office within the state Department of Justice to oversee elections.

Earlier this year, former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who was hired by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to lead the one-party review of the 2020 election at a cost of $676,000 to taxpayers, listed the “elimination and dismantling” of the Elections Commission as one of his top recommendations to the Legislature.

Vos, who has repeatedly extended Gableman’s contract with the state despite no evidence of widespread fraud in the now 18-month-old election, has been adamantly opposed to eliminating the commission. Vos has also rejected Gableman’s recommendation that the Legislature consider decertifying the results of the 2020 election, something experts and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have described as a constitutional impossibility.

Calls to dismantle the Elections Commission come just six years after the agency was formed in 2016 by former Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers to replace the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board, which itself was created in 2008 in the wake of the 2001 legislative caucus scandal that saw lawmakers from both parties convicted of using taxpayer resources to campaign.

The GAB came under fire from Republicans for its role in an investigation into coordination between Walker’s 2012 recall campaign and supposedly independent political groups.

Plan details

Michels’ plan to reform the Elections Commission includes calling the Legislature into a special session on his first day as governor to vote to remove the agency’s six commissioners within a month. It would also terminate all senior staff at the agency and require them to reapply under the newly appointed commission.

Any staff member who participated in issuing guidance that did not comply with state law would be prohibited from rejoining the agency. Republicans have taken aim at agency guidance provided in 2020 to not send poll workers to nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

His plan would also ban private grant funding for administering elections and the use of unstaffed absentee ballot drop boxes. He also calls for a twice annual purge of dead and inactive voters from the polls. Currently, the commission performs a daily check on voters who are dead or have become ineligible. Voters who have not cast ballots in four years are purged from voter rolls.

Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, who have said they oppose abolishing the state Elections Commission, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the Elections Commission, described Michels’ plan as “craziness” in a tweet Thursday.

“It demonstrates a total lack of understanding how elections work,” Jacobs said. “There would be no guidance for elections at all? And no staff? Just an empty office? Who will administer registrations?”

The winner of the Aug. 9 primary will go on to face Evers in the Nov. 8 general election.

Evers, who has vetoed multiple bills passed by the GOP-led Legislature aimed at putting restrictions on elections, has said he opposes any effort to make voting harder in Wisconsin.

“All eligible voters should be able to vote,” Evers tweeted Thursday. “I will continue to veto any radical legislation that makes it harder to access the ballot box.”