Wisconsin’s conservative-controlled Supreme Court ruled Friday that absentee ballot drop boxes may be placed only in election offices and that no one other than the voter can return a ballot in person, dealing a critical defeat to Democrats in the battleground state.
The court didn’t address the question of who can send a voter’s ballot back by mail. Others, including election officials, argued that drop boxes provide a safe and convenient way for voters of returning ballots.
This decision establishes absentee ballot rules to govern the Aug. 9 primary as well as the fall election. The Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson and Democratic Governor are the beneficiaries. Tony Evers is running for reelection in key races.
This court’s decision of 4-3 has important implications for the 2024 presidential election, where Wisconsin will once again be one of the battleground states. Just under 21,000 votes separated Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2020, just four years after Trump narrowly won it by a similar margin.
During the 2020 pandemic, more than 40% of all votes cast mail ballots. This is a record. More than 500 drop boxes were established in over 430 communities in the year of the election, including more than 12 in Madison and Milwaukee, the two most Democratic cities in the state.
Trump lost the state and Republicans claimed that drop boxes encouraged cheating. They didn’t have any evidence. Democrats, election officials, and some Republicans claimed that the boxes were secure.
In 2021, the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty sued. In February, the state Supreme Court prohibited drop boxes from election clerk offices during the April election for local offices such as mayor, councilor, and school board seats. Friday’s ruling was on whether secure ballot boxes should be allowed in libraries and grocery shops.
The state law does not allow for drop boxes. However, the court ruled that absentee ballots may be returned to the clerk’s office. Bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission informed local election officials that the boxes could be placed in multiple locations and that ballots may be returned by other people, but that this was put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Wisconsin Legislature is controlled by Republicans. They have tried to pass laws restricting the use of absentee votes, but Evers has blocked them.
Robin Vos, Republican House Speaker, called the decision “a huge step forward in our efforts ensure electoral integrity” and stated that the next step was to elect a Republican governor who is able to sign their election reforms.
Tony Evers, Democratic Governor of California, stated that “politicians shouldn’t be able to abuse the power they have to prevent eligible voters casting their ballots or cheating by changing the rules because they don’t like the outcome from the last election.”
The big picture is that Wisconsin once had an easy way for voters to vote. We don’t have an easy way to vote, which is a bad thing for democracy. “We have made the wrong decision here,” Scott Thompson, of Law Forward, said. Law Forward represented three intervening groups in this case.
He said drop boxes had been “a convenient way for people [to participate in democracy]” for a long time and that the ruling could have caused confusion just before the August primaries.
Republicans have taken similar steps since Trump’s defeat in order to restrict access to voting in battleground states. These restrictions are especially targeted at voting methods that have been increasing in popularity. They also create hurdles for early voting and mail balloting that experienced explosive growth during the pandemic.
Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote the majority opinion. She was joined by Patience Roggensack and Brian Hagedorn, who were conservative Justices. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler was also a part of the group. Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet, and Jill Karofsky were the three liberal justices who voted against.
Aaron Navarro contributed this report.
