appointing sitting legislators to positions at state agencies. Some years bring more vacancies than others, while some don't have any. The exact date a special election is held for a seat is influenced by constraints of statute, logistics and political calculation.

WisContext's analysis of special elections in Wisconsin from 1971 through January 2018 did not turn up a single instance when a governor left a seat unoccupied for more than a year until the vacancies of Frank Lasee and Keith Ripp. Even vacancies in the 200-day range uncovered in this investigation began with a resignation or death in March or April, and ended with a new legislator being elected in November and sworn in by the following January.

Gov. Scott Walker's decision to leave two legislative seats vacant is adeparture from precedent, including his own previous actions on special elections. Office of Gov. Scott Walker

In the case of Lasee and Ripp, both resigned at the end of December 2017, and based on Walker's decision, those seats will not be filled until January 2019. Given the timing of these resignations, both seats would have been empty through much or all of the Legislature's regular floor debate and voting schedule in 2018 even if Walker had called special elections as soon as possible. But this timing hasn't always been a barrier in the past five decades — WisContext's analysis turned up 14 instances in which legislators vacated their seats in December, including some resignations in odd-numbered years, and the governor at the time called a special election for March,