Vice President Kamala Harris made her fourth visit to Wisconsin, this time in Madison, as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, and Here & Now reporter Zac Schultz covered the rally. Voter advocacy groups came out with guidance for election clerks on legal consequences of refusing to certify results — Protect Democracy’s Wisconsin lead counsel Edgar Lin discussed the legal requirements. Wisconsin taxpayers in 2025 will be able to use IRS DirectFile, a free online filing system for federal and state tax returns — state Department of Revenue Sec. David Casey described how it works.
 

Zac Schultz
Senior political reporter, Here & Now

• Marking her fourth visit to Wisconsin since becoming the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in Madison on Sept. 20 to get out the youth vote, according to her campaign. Schultz reported live from the Alliant Energy Center following the rally, and described why the campaign event was held this particular moment in time.
• Schultz: “Dane County is the fastest growing county in the state. Democrats need to run up the score here in order to win statewide, but it’s also a place where you can show that energy and motivation to people around the state. It’s really important for Democrats to come here. John Kerry in 2004 came in October, Barack Obama in 2012 came in October, as those big motivating rallies to try and show all the momentum to the rest of the nation. The question is, then why did Harris come here in September? Well, because campaigns are earlier now. We’ve already seen more than 400,000 absentee ballots being sent out around the state. Early voting has started in some states. It starts — early in-person voting starts in Wisconsin in just a few weeks.”

Edgar Lin
State policy strategist and counsel, Protect Democracy

• The non-partisan voter advocacy group Protect Democracy has issued guidance for local election clerks in seven swing states – including Wisconsin – detailing legal consequences if they attempt to not certify results. The guidance notes that since 2020, more than 30 local election officials across the country have tried or threatened to refuse to certify results, though none have been in Wisconsin. Lin said election certification is a legal requirement, and explained what happens if state law is not followed.
• Lin: “Our local election officials are doing their jobs, regularly fulfilling their roles as stewards to our democracy. But if a county official refused to certify, either in bad faith because of partisanship or baseless claims of fraud, or because they genuinely misunderstand their legal duties, say at the county level, state actors like the attorney general or the Wisconsin Election Commission, and even voters can bring legal actions to compel them or to make them do that job. It’s called a mandamus action. The attorney general or local district attorneys may also prosecute bad actors for election fraud by election officials.”

Sec. David Casey
Wisconsin Department of Revenue

• The IRS is launching its DirectFile program nationwide in 2025, including in Wisconsin. The free electronic tax filing system will allow online completion of both federal and state returns. Casey described how many taxpayers in the state will be able to use the program if desired.
• Casey: “Right now, we’re estimating about 600,000 taxpayers will be eligible. For the eligibility, you really just need to be a wage earner with less complicated income — so no interest income or, for example, no real estate income. So the majority of Wisconsinites have a particular wage income and that’s it, and then also some limited credits that you can apply for. We’ll have the earned income tax credit and some others, but it’s fairly limited at this point.”

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