Two public-sector unions in Wisconsin failed to recertify their status following a provision in Governor Scott Walker’s union-reform law. The law requires unions to hold annual elections to determine their status.

The Wisconsin Association for Correctional Law Enforcement and a local educators’ union both failed to get 51 percent of their members to support recertification, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Under the new law, a majority of the union’s members must support the effort, rather than a majority of those voting. For example, in the correctional-officers-union election, the “yes” votes garnered 813 votes compared to 43 “no” votes, but total supporters were a small portion of the union’s more than 5,400 members.

Union officers have criticized the provision because members who choose not to physically vote are effectively counted as “no” votes in their absence. A Walker spokesman countered, saying that the law has helped “put the power back in the hands of the hardworking taxpayers, and it has already delivered positive results for the people of Wisconsin.”

Other unions have failed to recertify earlier this year, including Wisconsin’s third-largest teachers’ union.