United States – Democratic Governor Tony Evers asked for the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to undo the verdict that banned absentee ballot drop-off boxes outside the bounds of election clerks’ offices in the presidential swing state.
Wisconsin’s presidential primary
In a document filed on the same day as Wisconsin’s presidential primary, Governor Evers petitioned the court to undo the gubernatorial decision from a 2022 ruling that limited the number of drop box locations. The former President Donald Trump had alleged without any evidence that the drop boxes resulted in voter fraud during 2020 elections when his state was lost. The Wisconsin supreme court was dominated by a conservative majority at that time. It has been controlled by the liberals ever since; the five sitting justices of the Supreme Court went back last month to the previous case brought by Priorities USA and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Voters. Oral arguments were held on May 13, as reported by the Associated Press.
Wisconsin law does not specify anything on drop boxes. Liberals believe this means there should be no restrictions when it comes to spreading them around areas. In his submission dated Tuesday, Evers asserts that the 2022 court misconstrued the definition of what it is to deliver a ballot to an election clerk in the 2022 case.
“Depositing a ballot into a drop box maintained by the municipal clerk is a personal delivery to the municipal clerk in much the same way as a ballot is mailed when an individual drops it in the mailbox without waiting to watch it be collected by the postal carrier,” the filing argues.
Drop boxes have been enjoyed by some voters in WI for years but their popularity spiraled out of control mostly in 2020 during the first coronavirus year. As many as 500 drop boxes were put up in more than 430 towns that season, which included a lot more than a dozen each in Madison and Milwaukee, the most heavily Democratic cities in the state.
The voting regulations of Wisconsin are gaining more attention, especially as it is becoming one of the handful of swing states. Seventy percent of the last six presidential elections held in Wisconsin have been decided by a mere margin of a percentage point or even less.
The U.S. Vote Foundation reports that at least 29 other states permit absentee ballot drop boxes to be placed outside of election offices.
“All across our country, election officials have chosen to use drop boxes to ensure that all eligible voters can freely cast their ballots,” Evers said in a statement. “Drop box voting is safe and secure, and there is nothing in Wisconsin’s election laws that prohibit our local clerks from using this secure option.”