gab – Madison Catholic Herald Archive (2001-2025)

Shame on Wisconsin voters! Approximately 12.7 percent of eligible voters turned out for the August 12 partisan primary, according to results certified by the state’s Government Accountability Board (GAB).

There were 552,342 votes cast in primaries for governor, which is 12.7 percent of Wisconsin’s 2014 voting-age population of 4,348,307, according to Census estimates.

Before I proceed, I have to confess that I am one of those citizens who did not vote in the August 12 primary. I could plead that I was too busy: I worked all day and attended the Diocese of Madison’s Lumen Christi Society event that evening.

But that is really no excuse. I could have left work to vote or even stopped by the polling place between work and the evening event.

Eye on the Capitol

On June 21, 2012

John Huebscher

Judges on board deserve our thanks

It is difficult to think of a scandal as a good thing. But the scandal triggered by violations of election and lobby laws 10 years ago, that led to reforming state regulation of both activities, had a positive effect.

One such reform merged the State Elections Board and the State Ethics Board into a new Government Accountability Board (GAB) with different membership. This has proven to be a very good thing.

Most members of the former Elections Board were designees of partisan leadership in the legislature. Board members did their best, but they had limited powers and were often expected to represent the interests of partisan leaders who appointed them.

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