Wisconsin Gov. Urges State Supreme Court to Overturn Ruling on Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks to supporters during an election night event at The Orpheum Theater in Madison, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Wisconsin’s Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, has asked the state’s Supreme Court to overturn its 2022 ruling limiting the use of drop boxes to receive absentee ballots in elections.

In a brief filed with the court on April 2—the day of Wisconsin’s presidential primary—Mr. Evers argued the 2022 decision by the state Supreme Court “imposed one-size-fits-all, judicially created constraints on these municipal clerks’ authority to administer elections in a manner that is both responsive to the needs of their unique communities and compliant with the law.”

“Teigen should be overturned,” the governor added.

In the July 2022 case of Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, found that drop boxes which allow people to drop off ballots cast by themselves and others were illegal under Wisconsin law.

Writing for the court’s majority opinion at the time, Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote that an absentee ballot “must be returned by mail or the voter must personally deliver it to the municipal clerk at the clerk’s office or a designated alternate site.”

The decision upheld a circuit court ruling that concluded an elector must “personally mail” his or her ballot and that mailing the ballot and delivering it in person are the only two lawful methods for casting an absentee ballot.

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The ruling also marked a win for the law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), which had argued that absentee ballot drop boxes—widely used in the 2020 election—lack statutory authorization and that Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) guidance encouraging their use was unlawful.

Drop Boxes Explode in Popularity

At the time, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court was made up of conservative justices, however, the court is now under more liberal control and the current justices agreed last month to revisit the case amid fierce opposition.

Drop boxes have been used for years in Wisconsin, but they exploded in popularity in 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions, including lockdowns, were in place.

At least 500 drop boxes were set up in more than 430 communities that year, including more than a dozen each in Madison and Milwaukee, the state’s two most heavily Democratic cities.

“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,” Mr. Evers argued in the April 2 filing.

He further argued that the state Supreme Court’s current interpretation of the law in the presidential battleground state “has led to confusion and inconsistency for those tasked with interpreting it.”

Ruling ‘Led to Confusion and Inconsistency’

“The right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy,” he continued. “Such an important right warrants every effort on this Court’s part to ensure that the best and most accurate reading of statutes relating to its exercise prevails.”

People cast their ballots on the first day of in-person early voting for the Nov. 3, 2020, elections in Milwaukee, Wis., on Oct. 20, 2020. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)

In a statement to multiple media publications after asking the court to overturn the 2022 ruling, Mr. Evers said election officials across the country have “chosen to use drop boxes to ensure that all eligible voters can freely cast their ballots” and that they have done so while simultaneously “keeping ballots safe and secure.”

“At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote,” he continued. “In Wisconsin, we must work to protect that freedom and to empower our clerks and election administrators working hard at the local level to make decisions that are right for their communities. Dropbox voting is safe and secure, and there is nothing in Wisconsin’s election laws that prohibit our local clerks from using this secure option, absent an incorrect ruling by our courts.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in the case on May 13, 2024.

Zachary Stieber and the Associated Press contributed to this report.