Category: State Legislator
Role: Wisconsin State Senator, District 23 (Chippewa Falls); former election clerk; Principal author of 12 voting bills (2022)
Priority: P1 (Authored dozen voter suppression bills; former election official turned restrictive legislator; vetoed by Governor Evers)

Role

Kathy Bernier, a Republican state senator from Chippewa Falls, served as principal author of a dozen voting bills passed by Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Senate in February 2022. As a former Chippewa County Clerk (an elected position overseeing elections), Bernier brought technical election administration expertise to her authorship of voting restrictions. All 12 bills were vetoed by Democratic Governor Tony Evers, and Republicans lacked the supermajority needed to override the vetoes.

Background

Bernier served as Chippewa County Clerk before her election to the Wisconsin State Senate in 2011. Her background as an election administrator gave her credibility when proposing election legislation, though critics noted her bills consistently restricted rather than expanded voting access. Her technical expertise allowed her to craft detailed restrictions that she framed as addressing administrative concerns, while Democrats argued the bills were voter suppression rooted in false 2020 election fraud claims.

Documented Actions

1. Principal Authorship of 12 Voting Bills (February 2022)

Evidence: In February 2022, the Wisconsin Senate passed a dozen voting bills principally authored by Bernier. Urban Milwaukee and other outlets identified her as the lead author of this package of restrictive legislation. The bills addressed various aspects of election administration, with Republicans claiming they implemented Legislative Audit Bureau recommendations and addressed “irregularities,” while Democrats characterized them as voter suppression.

Key bills in the package included provisions to:

• Restrict indefinitely confined voter status and require annual reapplication
• Prohibit election officials from filling in missing witness addresses on absentee ballots
• Require photo ID for elderly and disabled voters voting absentee
• Implement new voter list maintenance procedures
• Add restrictions on drop boxes and ballot collection
• Create new requirements for election officials

SourcesUrban Milwaukee, February 23, 2022; WUWM (Milwaukee NPR), February 23, 2022All 12 bills passed the Republican-controlled Senate along party lines but were vetoed by Governor Evers. Republicans lacked the two-thirds supermajority needed to override the vetoes, preventing the bills from becoming law.

Pattern: Package of multiple restrictive bills; former election official authoring restrictions; party-line passage followed by gubernatorial veto

2. SB 937 – Indefinitely Confined Voter Status Restrictions

Evidence: Bernier was the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 937, which restricted Wisconsin’s “indefinitely confined” voter status—a provision that allows elderly and disabled voters to receive absentee ballots automatically without providing photo ID. The bill would have required these voters to reapply annually and provided new grounds for challenging their status.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many Wisconsin voters used the indefinitely confined status to vote absentee safely. Republicans criticized this usage and sought to restrict the category, arguing it was being abused. However, voting rights advocates noted that Wisconsin already had robust systems for verifying voter eligibility and that the bill would place new burdens on elderly and disabled voters without evidence of fraud.

SourcesWisconsin Legislature, 2021 SB 937 bill text and historyCo-sponsors of SB 937 included Senators Darling, Felzkowski, Marklein, and Wanggaard, along with numerous Assembly Republicans. The bill passed both chambers but was vetoed by Governor Evers.

Pattern: Targeting COVID-era voting expansions; restrictions on elderly and disabled voters; lack of fraud evidence justifying restrictions

3. SB 212 and SB 204 – Additional Absentee Voting Restrictions (2021)

Evidence: Bernier was involved in earlier 2021 bills that foreshadowed her 2022 package. SB 212 would have prohibited election officials from filling in missing information (such as witness addresses) on absentee ballot envelopes—a practice that helped cure technical defects and ensure valid ballots were counted. SB 204 included ID requirements for absentee voting by elderly and disabled voters.

These bills demonstrated Bernier’s focus on creating technical barriers in the absentee voting process. Critics noted that prohibition on curing minor defects like missing witness addresses would result in valid ballots being rejected for technicalities, disproportionately affecting elderly voters unfamiliar with detailed envelope requirements.

SourcesBluffton Today (AP wire), June 22, 2021; Wisconsin Legislature bill trackingWisconsin Republicans argued these bills addressed audit findings, but Democrats noted that the Legislative Audit Bureau’s recommendations were being interpreted in the most restrictive possible manner, and that other interpretations could have enhanced voting access while addressing administrative concerns.

Pattern: Technical barriers to absentee voting; rejection of valid ballots for minor defects; restrictive interpretation of audit recommendations

Pattern Analysis

Bernier exemplifies a concerning pattern within the public-corruption-ombudsman skill’s “voter suppression” category: the former election administrator who uses technical expertise to craft restrictions framed as administrative improvements. Her credibility as a former county clerk gave her proposals legitimacy among Republicans, while her consistent focus on restricting rather than expanding access revealed the partisan nature of her “reforms.” The February 2022 package of 12 bills represented one of the most comprehensive state-level voter suppression efforts that year.

Related profiles: bryan-hughes-profile (TX multiple bills), paul-bettencourt-profile (TX multiple bills), barry-fleming-profile (GA committee chair), amy-loudenbeck-profile (WI SoS candidate)

Related skills: voting-rights-law-expert, fourteenth-amendment-legal-expert (equal protection – elderly and disabled voters), fifth-amendment-legal-expert (due process), tenth-amendment-legal-expert (state election administration)

Severity Assessment

Immediate harm: Moderate – all 12 bills vetoed; did not become law; but established template for future restrictions Democratic erosion: High – systematic package of restrictions; former election official legitimizing voter suppression; party-line passage demonstrating Republican commitment Authoritarian marker: Multiple coordinated restrictions; targeting elderly and disabled voters; technical barriers to valid ballot counting; restrictive interpretation of audit findings

Accountability Status

Current status: Served in Wisconsin State Senate through 2022; did not seek re-election in 2022 Legal exposure: None; bills were vetoed and did not become law Public accountability: All 12 bills vetoed by Governor Evers; Democrats and voting rights organizations condemned the package as voter suppression; praised by Wisconsin Republicans for “election integrity” focus

2022-2026 Updates

Election status: Retired; announced January 2022 she would not seek reelection. Left office November 2022. Break with GOP: As former county election clerk and Senate elections committee chair, Bernier was the only Republican lawmaker to publicly defend Wisconsin’s 2020 election system. She called the taxpayer-funded Gableman investigation “a charade” and “politically motivated,” urged Trump to accept the 2020 results, and called manufactured election claims “despicable.” Gableman demanded her resignation in retaliation. Legal outcomes: All 12 bills remained vetoed by Governor Evers; none became law. Subsequent actions: No further legislative activity. Bernier’s public break with election denial remains a notable exception among 2021-era voting restriction sponsors.

Cross-References

Skills: public-corruption-ombudsman, voting-rights-law-expert, fourteenth-amendment-legal-expert, fifth-amendment-legal-expert, tenth-amendment-legal-expert

Related profiles: bryan-hughes-profile, paul-bettencourt-profile, barry-fleming-profile, amy-loudenbeck-profile, tony-evers-profile

Topics: Wisconsin voting bills, SB 937, indefinitely confined voters, absentee ballot restrictions, witness address requirements, 2022 Wisconsin Legislature, gubernatorial veto, elderly and disabled voters, former election clerk, technical voting barriers

Investigative trail pointers (public records)

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For Trump Supporters: Questions Worth Considering

Kathy Bernier is a former Chippewa County Clerk — an election administrator by profession — who authored a package of 12 voting restriction bills as a Wisconsin State Senator. All 12 were vetoed by Governor Evers. But Bernier also publicly broke with Wisconsin’s Republican election denial movement in a way that almost no other Republican voting restriction sponsor did: she called the taxpayer-funded Gableman election “investigation” “a charade” and “politically motivated,” publicly urged Trump to accept the 2020 election results, and called the manufactured election claims “despicable.” The state’s special election investigator, Michael Gableman, demanded her resignation in retaliation. She did not resign. She retired from the legislature in 2022.

Here’s a question worth sitting with: Bernier is a case study in contradiction. She sponsored voting restriction bills — eliminating the indefinitely confined voter exemption, creating new barriers for absentee voters — while simultaneously being the only Republican legislator who publicly defended Wisconsin’s 2020 election results, called the investigation into those results politically motivated, and faced retaliation from her own party for doing so. She has both the profile of someone advancing voter suppression and the profile of someone with genuine professional knowledge of elections refusing to endorse the lies that motivated those restrictions. What do you make of someone who sponsored restrictions and simultaneously rejected the conspiracy theories that served as their primary justification?

A second question about the restrictions she authored: Bernier’s background as a county election clerk meant she understood exactly what her bills would do operationally. The bills targeting “indefinitely confined” voter status were specifically directed at elderly and disabled Wisconsin voters who were using that status to vote safely during COVID-19. A professional election administrator knows who uses these provisions and who they affect. When someone with that professional knowledge sponsors bills that would restrict access for vulnerable voters — but also publicly says the fraud claims driving those restrictions are lies — what does that combination tell you about why the restrictions were being proposed?

Sources

• Urban Milwaukee: “Senate Passes a Dozen Voting Bills” (February 23, 2022)
• WUWM (Milwaukee NPR): “How Wisconsin Republicans are trying to change voting and administration of elections” (February 23, 2022)
• Wisconsin Legislature: Senate Bill 937 (2021) bill text and history
• Bluffton Today (AP): “Wisconsin lawmakers pass voting bills that face certain veto by Evers” (June 22, 2021)

Last Updated: May 11, 2026
Profile Status: Retired from legislature 2022
Next Review: Annually