Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees to hear challenges to absentee ballot drop box ban

MADISON – The use of absentee ballot drop boxes could once again be legal in Wisconsin, with the state Supreme Court's new liberal majority agreeing to hear a challenge to an earlier ruling issued by the court's previous longstanding conservative bloc.

In July 2022, the state Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling banned voters from using drop boxes to return absentee ballots. In September, a Waukesha County judge banned election clerks to fill in missing address information on absentee ballots. The lawsuit, filed in July by the Elias Law Group on behalf of two liberal-leaning organizations and a Dane County man, seeks to undo both rules.

In an order issued Tuesday afternoon, the court agreed to take up the drop box question. Oral arguments are scheduled for May 13.

Chief Justice Annette Ziegler joined Justice Rebecca Bradley in a dissent.

"By granting this petition to bypass, the majority again aims to increase the electoral prospects of its preferred political party," Bradley wrote. "Finding the decision politically inconvenient, and emboldened by a new makeup of the court, this new majority embraces the opportunity to overturn (the 2022 ruling in Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission). The majority's decision to do so will upset the status quo of election administration mere months before a presidential election and lead to chaos and confusion for Wisconsin voters and election officials."

Writing for the majority in the 2022 Teigen decision, Bradley said state law does not permit drop boxes anywhere other than election clerk offices and only state lawmakers may make new policy stating otherwise — not the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which had issued guidance to clerks allowing them.

Drop boxes for absentee ballots had long been in use in Wisconsin, but during the COVID-19 pandemic their use exploded in 2020 to help voters cast their ballots without interacting with other people. More than 40% of all votes cast that year were through absentee ballots.

The practice was heavily criticized by Republican former President Donald Trump, who alleged with no evidence that absentee voting was rife with fraud and led to his reelection loss in 2020.

The challenge the court agreed to hear argues drop boxes "are critical for voters … who are unable to vote in person because of disability, scheduling conflicts, lack of transportation, or other hardship."

Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear challenge to ballot drop box ban