You may hear a lot of griping about elections in Wisconsin.

But recent polling suggests a big majority of voters has confidence in the process and trusts the people who run elections.

The bipartisan group Democracy Defense Project works in several states, including Wisconsin. It commissioned a poll that was done April 7-10 just after the high profile and expensive Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The poll was done by the Dem firm FM3 Research and The Tarrance Group, a Republican firm. Six hundred likely registered voters were included in the sample.

The polling showed 77 percent of respondents said they had confidence that the April 1 votes were accurately cast and counted. In addition, 70 percent said election workers and officials were important volunteers “who count votes fairly and need to be able to do their jobs without interference.''

But there is room for improvement with 76 percent backing the idea of beginning the processing of absentee ballots one day early -- on the Monday before the Tuesday election.

The poll results and the earlier processing of absentee ballots were part of a bipartisan discussion organized by the nonpartisan news organization WisPolitics.com. The Democracy Defense Project sponsored the discussion, which took place June 20 at Fox Valley Technical College near Appleton.

The participants included a county clerk, former GOP Attorney General JB Van Hollen and two members of the Assembly elections committee — one Democrat and one Republican.

Rep. Scott Krug said he hopes to introduce a bill in the next couple of months to allow election clerks to process absentee ballots earlier, avoiding election night “ballot dumps.”

The Arkdale Republican said he’s already been talking to the governor’s office and other lawmakers about the bill. A similar bill passed the Assembly last session but stalled in the Senate.

And Oconto County Clerk Kim Pytleski said allowing clerks to begin processing ballots earlier would increase election integrity and transparency.

She said when clerks begin processing ballots on Election Day, observers have to watch the processing as well as observing regular election day activities. Pytleski said letting clerks start early would allow observers to be more focused.

Pytleski added this would “allow people to go to bed Tuesday night knowing the results of the elections.”

Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton, and Krug said they were able to push a bill forward in the Assembly last year that would allow clerks to start processing on Monday. But it ran into roadblocks with the Senate.

“While we were able to make the case to our various caucuses that this is the right thing to do, that this makes sense, that this is going to help instill everybody’s confidence in elections and remove the perception that there are something nefarious going on with ballot dumps, we were not able to make that happen in the Senate,” Snodgrass said.

Krug said there’s support from both parties in the Assembly, but the Senate will again prove a challenge because of the division within the chamber.

He said last session one concern was that the bill was introduced too close to the election, so Krug said it will be ideal to introduce the bill in the next month or so and hopefully get public hearings this fall and passage by winter.

Panelists agreed election integrity and promoting public trust in elections are important.

Krug also focused on the importance of having conversations with election officials and clerks to determine the best legislation. He said these discussions are beneficial “just to know that the input that we’re getting matters and that the input that you’re giving is actually turning to results.”

Van Hollen represented the bipartisan Democracy Defense Project, a multi-state group founded to inform voters about election integrity and to restore faith in the elections process.

“Election integrity is tremendously important, and people’s confidence in elections is tremendously important,” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen said it is important to educate voters on how the election system works and why it works.

For more, go to www.wispolitics.com