Absentee Ballot dropbox in Wausau. Image courtesy: Mayor Katie Rosenberg/Facebook
MADISON, WI (WSAU) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court has made a landmark decision on the issue of unstaffed absentee ballot boxes, changing their previous ruling to make the boxes legal once again in the state with election day just four months away.
According to WisPolitics’s JR Ross, the Court voted 4-3 on Friday morning to reverse their 2022 4-3 ruling which found that the boxes were unconstitutional, with Justice Ann Bradley stating that the new ruling doesn’t mandate the use of ballot boxes but instead confirms that “clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion.”
Justice Rebecca Bradley, who wrote the dissenting opinion, stated that the more liberally inclined Justices on the Court are “loosening the legislature’s regulations governing the privilege of absentee voting in the hopes of tipping the scales in future elections.”
Wisconsin elected representatives such as Congressman Tom Tiffany weighed in on the ruling through a press release, saying, “Just after Wisconsinites voted overwhelmingly to bolster election integrity in the state, the liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to overturn a previous precedent they set, effectively legalizing anonymous ballot box stuffing. This decision not only opens the door to potentially fraudulent activities but also undermines the expressed desires of Wisconsin voters.”
A challenge to the ban on unstaffed drop boxes was filed by Democrat-aligned groups last year, just two weeks before the state’s high court shifted to a liberal majority. “Voters who are unable to vote in person because of a disability, scheduling conflicts, lack of transportation, or other hardship,” according to the lawsuit, “need the boxes.”
In 2020, Wisconsin constructed hundreds of absentee drop boxes, and that year, absentee ballots accounted for over 40% of all votes cast in the state that President Biden won by just 21,000 votes.
The issue of unstaffed absentee ballot boxes has been polarizing nationwide since the 2020 election, when candidates such as former President Donald Trump stated that he believed the boxes were used to cast legal ballots that were filled out improperly using fake addresses and names or used the names of individuals without their consent or knowledge by political “Get Out the Vote” groups in swing states trying to defeat him but his legal team was unable to prove the matter in court following the election.
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