Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules Ballot Drop Boxes ‘Illegal’
The Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4-3 last week against the use of ballot drop boxes in future elections and confirmed absentee ballots must be returned by the person named on the ballot.
Writing for the majority, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley cited a state law requiring absentee ballots to be returned to a clerk’s office or designated location – not to a random box.
“[The Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC)] may have been trying to make voting as easy as possible during the pandemic, but whatever their motivations, WEC must follow Wisconsin statutes,” wrote Bradley. “Good intentions never override the law.”
The court made no comment on whether a ballot could be mailed by someone other than the person named on the ballot, but confirmed that any changes to election policy must come from the State Legislature and not from the WEC.
“This case is about applying the law as written; that’s it,” wrote Justice Brian Hagedorn. “Significant questions remain despite our decision in this case, especially as absentee voting has become increasingly common…The Legislature and governor may wish to consider resolving some of the open questions these statues present.”
As expected, opponents claimed the ruling was part of a scheme designed to make it harder for some people to vote.
“[The court’s decision] has seemingly taken the opportunity to make it harder to vote or to inject confusion into the process whenever it has been presented with the opportunity,” wrote dissenting Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. “Without justification, [the majority] fans the flames of electoral doubt that threaten our democracy.”
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Republicans have been pushing to limit the use of ballot drop boxes and other risky collection methods since the 2020 election, when Democrats used the pandemic as an excuse to dramatically change election protocol. Former President Donald Trump and others claim these changes facilitated massive voter fraud that cost him the 2020 election.
In the state of Wisconsin alone, roughly 2 million people voted by absentee ballot in 2020 and the state utilized 570 ballot drop boxes. Wisconsin, a key battleground state, voted red by fewer than 25,000 votes in 2016 and blue by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020.
The court’s decision means drop boxes will not be used for Wisconsin’s primary election in August, the midterm elections in November, or the presidential election in 2024.
Author’s Note: This is exactly what conservatives have been asking for and hopefully Wisconsin’s decision sets a precedent for other states as we move closer to midterms.
Sources:
Wisconsin Supreme Court outlaws ballot drop boxes for elections
The Wisconsin Supreme Court says ballot drop boxes aren’t allowed in the state
Wisconsin Supreme Court bars absentee ballot drop boxes outside elections offices
A little to late the big steal has already occurred. The big tects, fake press and lying television stations have already damaged America and it will be tough to recover.
Hell we’re lucky to have survived as a nation And we still have idiots running around cheerleading for the leftist
the big steal is The Big Lie; ask the 850 arrested who listened.
They are patriots and martyrs
Martyrs to the whimsy of Donald J Trump maybe. But American patriots do not plead guilty to seditious conspiracy.
They pleaded guilty to: “If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”
nuff said.
The democrats are guilty of it all. Doesn’t that include messing with the scotus? Threatening and assaulting senators? You tell me.
ah……can you say seditious conspiracy at the Capitol? Can you say fake electors? Can you say use military to seize voting machines? Can you say Powel, Guiliani, Flynn, Stone?
Yeah, messing with a guy’s dinner is a terrible thing. Good thing the restaurant was pro choice and he could abort the dinner out the back door because we know how brave he is. I personally feel wasted food is a sin and he should how been forced to deliver the meal even if he personally felt raped by the protestors.
Given the Wisconsin August 9th primaries, doing this four weeks before should be a great test of the new, restricted, constricted, confused system.
Absentee votes must either be mailed or handed off BY THE VOTER to an election’s clerk. Gonna be some long lines over this.
One point of confusion is that at the offices of election clerks, where boxes exist, the boxes will remain due to bill payment drop off, but now citizens can no longer take ballots. So, anticipate some box confusion at said sites as boxes will be there with lots of new signage about not dropping your ballet in.
Another point of confusion is the votes that are mailed in MUST be mailed by the voter. Therefore, if a spouse mails for their mate, they are illegally voting. Potential for fingerprinting envelopes to catch the cheaters!!
Another point of confusion is that the election board has yet to offer process recommendations to clerks, hey, the election is still 4 weeks away and they knew this was coming for months, the boxes will remain at the clerks offices, there are certainly parts of this process that clerks would love some advice on.
Confusion will be Wisconsin’s epitaph, confusion means less votes, less votes means greater Republican chances for success. That’s one political point in all these restrictions. I am not sure where the enhanced security comes in.
Additionally, other people, including spouses, may not return absentee ballots in for others except voters with significant physical disabilities may have a friend or family member drop their absentee ballot in a mailbox for them. Significant and proof meanings could not be determined yet. That’s just fucking criminal. Gonna be fingerprint checks on the envelopes?
To do this, a split 4/3 court created a interpretation, that they call “literal,” of state law, finding that returning an absentee ballot to a municipal clerk “does not mean nor has it been historically understood to mean delivery to an unattended ballot drop box.” State law also allows absentee ballots to be returned in the mail; but the court determined “ballot drop boxes, however, are not mailboxes,” bonehead Bradley wrote.
The court further said: “Thousands of votes have been cast via this unlawful method, thereby directly harming the Wisconsin voters,” even though the method was lawful until this decision, not that she has any bias, not. Further representing the Trumpian cries for rigged elections, she pushes the illegality bullshit on a double-down saying: “The illegality of these drop boxes weakens the people’s faith that the election produced an outcome reflective of their will. The Wisconsin voters, and all lawful voters, are injured when the institution charged with administering Wisconsin elections does not follow the law, leaving the results in question,” translated as: “Republicans whined so I did as asked even though we could not find one illegal vote cast via a drop box.”
Alice writes: “As expected, opponents claimed the ruling was part of a scheme designed to make it harder for some people to vote.” Scheme? It does make it harder for people to vote. Not some people. All people.
Bottom line: Federal drop boxes are not precluded by this decision, yet, so the Fed just has to replace what’s being taken out and all is solved. Since this decision can theoretically be used in other states, fuck, let’s just go national with the Federal drop box program.
Better yet, let’s just open voting to the internet using double-authentication and whatever security is used now for Social Security recipients. That ought to make Republicans go full “Scanners.”
Whatever it takes. Republicans must win