Wisconsin voters have put a dent in their governor's robust power to rewrite bills, limiting what critics call the "Frankenstein veto."

Voters easily approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday curbing Gov. Jim Doyle's ability to stitch together unrelated words and numbers to create laws and spending levels never intended by the Legislature.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting, the change was supported by 71 percent of voters.

But the approved amendment prohibits governors only from crossing out words and numbers to create a new sentence from two or more sentences. They can still cross out words within a sentence to change its meaning, remove individual digits to create new numbers or delete entire sentences from paragraphs.

"The governor still has a strong veto, and he'll continue using it to protect Wisconsin taxpayers and priorities when the Legislature goes to extremes," said Jess Erickson, spokeswoman for the Democratic governor.

Wisconsin governors have the unique ability to approve spending bills "in whole or in part" under a 1930 constitutional amendment. Courts have said that gives them broad authority to remake budgets approved by lawmakers.

Lawmakers pushed for the amendment in 2005 after they said Doyle overstepped by rewriting a section of the budget to divert millions of dollars of transportation money to schools.

He crossed out more than 700 words and stitched together others to create one new sentence allowing his administration to transfer $427 million out of the transportation fund. He cobbled together individual digits from five sets of numbers to come up with that figure, a maneuver he said saved public schools from harmful cuts.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, a Republican, called the referendum "a good step forward" that will restore the balance of power between the executive branch and the Legislature.

"Governors should have the ability to have a strong veto pen; but when it got to a point where there were vetoes that were contradicting the wishes of the Legislature, that's where you began to see some concerns about abuses taking place," he said. "I'm glad the people passed this."

The amendment will go into effect when state officials certify the election results. Government Accountability Board spokesman Kyle Richmond said that must happen by May 15 but could come weeks earlier. The timing is important because lawmakers are currently considering a budget repair bill that Doyle could rewrite.

The amendment is the second in recent decades limiting the partial veto power as governors have increasingly used it in creative ways. In 1990, voters banned the so-called "Vanna White veto" after Gov. Tommy Thompson crossed out letters within words to create new ones.

In other election results from Wisconsin, an alderman who ran his re-election campaign from behind bars lost the seat he has held since 2004.

Political consultant Milele A. Coggs was elected Tuesday to a four-year term on the Milwaukee Common Council, defeating Alderman Michael McGee Jr., who has been in prison awaiting trial on charges of election fraud, bribery and extortion.

"It's hard when you have a candidate who is trying to run a campaign from behind bars," said LaMonte Harris, an organizer with the McGee campaign. "It's hard to raise money, it's hard to get out on those doors on a regular basis so people can know who you are."

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Associated Press writer Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee contributed to this report.