The Wisconsin Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a case that could determine the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in state elections both this year and beyond.
The outcome could affect voter turnout in two key races in which Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson are seeking re-election, with primaries scheduled for August.
The state’s high court will hear arguments over a voting method lambasted by former President Donald Trump and his allies, who have falsely claimed that absentee ballot drop boxes led to widespread voter fraud in 2020. Wisconsin is one of many states where Republicans, often at Trump’s urging, have waged war on the practice.
The case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court marks the latest chapter in a legal saga on the use of absentee ballot drop boxes. In February, the court let a ban on drop boxes remain in effect for local elections in April. The seven-member court broke 4-3 along ideological lines in the ruling, which also let stand a prohibition on residents allowing them to return the absentee ballots of fellow voters.
Voting rights advocates have argued that getting rid of absentee ballot drop boxes would make it more difficult for many voters to cast ballots — a position the court’s liberal wing echoed in its dissent in February’s ruling.
“The greatest harm of the majority’s misstep may be the undermining of the election process itself,” Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote at the time. “Indeed, the only parties not harmed by today’s decision are those who would cast meritless doubt on our elections.”
Trump has repeatedly suggested without evidence that drop boxes were a source of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, which he lost. He has focused many of the false claims on states where President Joe Biden won by small margins.
Biden defeated Trump by fewer than 21,000 votes in Wisconsin.
There is no proof that drop boxes — mailbox-like boxes that offer voters a convenient way to cast their ballots — enable fraud, and election officials have created safeguards to ensure that mail-in ballots are cast by eligible voters. Each state has its own rules; Typically, mail-in ballots are verified by election officials who analyze the signatures on them against the registered voters’ on-file signatures.
The lawsuit before the state Supreme Court was brought on behalf of two voters by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a conservative organization. In January, a Waukesha County circuit judge first ruled on the case by saying absentee ballot drop boxes can’t be used in Wisconsin. The judge said state law allows absentee ballots to be returned in person or by mail — but not in ballot drop boxes — and that absentee ballots could be dropped off at or mailed to local election clerks’ offices only by the people casting the votes.
Conservatives have ridiculed having someone else drop off or mail a ballot as “ballot harvesting.”
A state appeals court then ruled that drop boxes could be used in the state’s judicial primaries in February, because they were occurring so soon after the county circuit court ruling. The state Supreme Court later took over the case and agreed that the boxes could be used in February but not in April.
A final ruling is expected by the end of June.
In Wednesday’s oral arguments, Wisconsin court-watchers will be looking to Justice Brian Hagedorn, the court’s swing vote. Hagedorn, who joined his fellow conservatives in letting the drop box ban stay in effect for the April elections, has ruled against Trump and his allies of him in multiple suits that sought to overturn the 2020 election results.
Hagedorn’s line of questioning Wednesday could signal the fate of drop boxes, particularly given the murky statutes surrounding the issue.
Because Wisconsin law includes no provisions about drop boxes, the state allows both attended and unattended drop boxes to be used — and it has for years. However, the Wisconsin Elections Commission, a nonpartisan organization that oversees elections in the state, issued guidance in 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, giving local election clerks the discretion to place drop boxes in any location.
But the practice was upended when the Waukesha County judge ordered the commission to rescind the guidance in January.
The lack of clarity has led to a push by Republicans who control the Legislature to draft bills to create rules governing the placement of drop boxes.
Republican legislators enacted limits on drop boxes in Florida, Georgia, Indiana and Iowa last year.
Associated Press contributed.
www.nbcnews.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism