Panels’ paper, e-mail votes may break law

01/09/2006

MADISON — Legislative committees might be violating open-meeting law when their members vote by paper or e-mail ballots without advance notice or in public, according to a legal opinion from the Legislature’s research agency.

Wisconsin’s Legislature has no specific rule authorizing paper or e-mail ballots.

It is unclear how Wisconsin courts would rule on the issue because judges nationwide often refuse to tell their legislatures how to act, according to the legal opinion Friday from the Legislative Reference Bureau. The opinion does not carry the force of law.

A Dane County judge recently ruled the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization broke the open-meeting law when it voted by paper ballot to fire two administrators in 2003. That vote came without public debate or advance notice, Circuit Judge Richard G. Niess noted.

His ruling would need a state Supreme Court decision to make it a statewide precedent.

Senate committees took such votes 126 times last year, or on 22 percent of all items they considered before sending the issues to the full Senate.

Senate Democratic Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit, has asked Republicans who control the Legislature to stop letting Senate committees vote by paper or e-mail ballots.

Committee leaders say paper and e-mail ballots are convenient, and their results eventually are made public.

Wisconsin’s open-meeting law generally requires governmental bodies to meet in public with advance notice of the topics they plan to consider.

— Associated Press