Republicans moved Wednesday to assert more control over Wisconsin elections, introducing bills that would dramatically re-shape the state elections board and rewrite campaign finance law.

As we suspected, a state audit released last week found no major problems with Wisconsin's nonpartisan Government Accountability Board, which handles ethics complaints and supervises state elections.

An audit released Thursday looking into how Wisconsin's nonpartisan elections and ethics board handles complaints found no major problems, leading the panel's director to say it should put to rest concerns about its operations even as Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker plan major overhauls.

When his Republican colleagues were stuffing the state budget with non-fiscal policies that didn't belong there, state Sen. Rob Cowles wisely objected.

Stung by a corruption scandal that led to the convictions of five lawmakers, a longtime Republican state senator met with the head of a government watchdog agency at a bar down the street from the Capitol to talk about how to improve ethics oversight.

A federal judge has ordered state election officials to post links to decisions striking down swaths of Wisconsin's campaign finance laws on its website.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' criticisms of the nonpartisan board overseeing Wisconsin elections, campaign finance and ethics laws were "just not true," the chairman of the board said in a letter made public Monday.

Wisconsin election board officials told the Legislature's audit committee Wednesday that they have been struggling with an unprecedented workload as they worked to blunt a critical evaluation of their performance and save their agency from the chopping block.

The board that oversees Wisconsin elections decided Tuesday to ask legislators to rework the state's campaign finance laws, saying the statutes have grown so complex and riddled with holes in the wake of court rulings that they need a complete overhaul.

Wisconsin's elections and ethics agency refuted in a court filing Monday claims that it had improperly participated in a campaign finance investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and conservative groups that supported him.

The state Government Accountability Board has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's campaign coordination law.

Democratic attorney general hopeful Susan Happ accused Republican opponent Brad Schimel of backtracking on whether he would defend a Wisconsin law restricting political candidates from coordinating with outside groups during their second debate Friday evening.

State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen won't defend Wisconsin elections officials against a new lawsuit connected to a secret probe of Gov. Scott Walker.

A judge dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that sought to force a redesign of Wisconsin ballots just six weeks before the Nov. 4 election, saying the complaint first should have been filed with the state elections board.

Wisconsin election officials want a judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking changes to the newly designed ballot for the Nov. 4 election.

A federal lawsuit has been filed challenging a Wisconsin state law that limits the amount of money candidates can collect from political action committees.

Wisconsin will soon find out who is officially running for attorney general.

The Wisconsin Club for Growth filed a lawsuit Friday against the state board that oversees elections, arguing that it exceeded its authority and violated the group's rights by investigating "virtually every conservative-leaning group in Wisconsin."

The state elections board on Wednesday loosened restrictions on campaign contributions to allow lobbyists in Wisconsin to pass along donations from political action committees and others to state lawmakers at any point during the year.

The state of Wisconsin agreed Thursday to stop enforcing a cap on how much people can donate in total to candidates running for office, ending a federal lawsuit and bringing state law in line with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Gov. Scott Walker will decide between four former Wisconsin circuit court judges to fill an opening spot on the Government Accountability Board.

Opponents of Wisconsin's voter-ID law hope that a recent win on the East Coast bodes well for their efforts to get Wisconsin's law overturned.

Gov. Scott Walker's appointee to the board that oversees elections in Wisconsin told members of the state Senate Elections committee on Tuesday that impartiality on the panel is an "absolute necessity."

A federal hearing over Wisconsin's voter-ID law began Monday with several minority witnesses, many of whom said their efforts to obtain a state-issued ID were met with bureaucratic obstacles that took time, money and legal assistance to overcome.

The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor approved a bill Tuesday that would prevent law firms from receiving more than $30 million from contingency-fee contracts held with the state.

The state board that oversees elections in Wisconsin is moving toward filling a vacancy.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said Thursday her decision to recuse herself from an ethics investigation into a fellow justice’s conduct has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with workplace safety.

Retired judge Tim Vocke has been selected to serve as chairman of the nonpartisan board that oversees elections in Wisconsin.

What we need in our elections is more politics. Specifically, what we need in the nonpartisan state agency that oversees our elections is more politics.

The nonpartisan board that oversees elections in Wisconsin too often favors Democrats and needs to be reconstituted, perhaps with a more partisan model like what previously existed, incoming Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Monday.