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America’s Top Model: The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board Daniel P. Tokaji* Introduction 575 I. The Wisconsin Model 577 II. The Experience of Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board 586 A. Voter Registration 586 B. Early and Absentee Voting 591 C. Voter Identification 593 D. Reporting of Election Results 597 E. Recall Elections 600 Conclusion 607 INTRODUCTION The United States is an outlier among democratic countries when it comes to the institutions charged with running our elections. Most other democratic countries have an independent election authority with some insulation from partisan politics.1 In the United States, by contrast, partisan election administra- tion2 is the near-universal norm among the states. Most states’ chief election * Robert M. Duncan/Jones Day Designated Professor of Law, The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law. The author thanks David Adamany, Sam Issacharoff, Kevin Kennedy, and Justin Levitt for their comments on earlier drafts and Tim Myers for his excellent research assistance. 1. See INT’L INST. FOR DEMOCRACY ELECTORAL ASSISTANCE, INTERNATIONAL ELECTORAL STANDARDS: GUIDELINES FOR REVIEWING THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF ELECTIONS 37 (2002), available at /publications/ies/index.cfm; RAPHAEL LÓPEZ-PINTOR, ELECTORAL MANAGEMENT BODIES AS INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNANCE 12 (2000), available at /content/undp/en/home/librarypage/democratic-governance/electoral_systems andprocesses/electoral-management-bodies-as-institutions-of-governance.html; LOUIS MASSICOTTE ET AL.,