{"id":4304,"date":"2022-07-08T20:36:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=4304"},"modified":"2022-07-08T20:36:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T20:36:12","slug":"wisconsin-supreme-court-ballot-drop-boxes-are-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=4304","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Supreme Court: Ballot Drop Boxes Are Illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 8, 2022 at 04:18PM Wisconsin Supreme Court: Ballot Drop Boxes Are Illegal<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Drop boxes that enable people to drop off ballots cast by themselves and others are illegal under Wisconsin law, the state\u2019s Supreme Court ruled on July 8.<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) in two documents in 2020 said drop boxes can not only be utilized, but that they can be unstaffed and permanent. Further, the agency said \u201ca family member or another person\u201d can drop off a ballot on behalf of a voter.<\/p>\n

The guidance was problematic because Wisconsin law states that a voter is the only individual who can deliver their ballot, either in person or via mail, a lawsuit filed last year stated.<\/p>\n

In the ruling\u00a0on Friday, a Wisconsin Supreme Court majority agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hold the documents are invalid because ballot drop boxes are illegal under Wisconsin statutes,\u201d\u00a0Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in the majority opinion.\u00a0 \u201cAn absentee ballot must be returned by mail or the voter must personally deliver it\u00a0to the municipal clerk at the clerk\u2019s office or a designated alternate site.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision upheld a circuit court ruling that concluded an elector must \u201cpersonally mail\u201d his or her ballot and that there are only two lawful methods for casting an absentee ballot. Those are mailing the ballot and delivering it in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause WEC\u2019s memos conflict with these statutory directives, they are invalid,\u201d\u00a0Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote in a concurring opinion.<\/p>\n

The memos were promulgated by the WEC in response to questions from local election clerks amid the COVID-9 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision provides substantial clarity on the legal status of absentee ballot drop boxes and ballot harvesting. While the question of whether an agent may mail an absentee ballot remains open, Wisconsin voters can have confidence that state law, not guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has the final word on how Wisconsin elections are conducted,\u201d Rick Esenberg, president and counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, told The Epoch Times in an email.<\/p>\n

The institute brought the case.<\/p>\n

Dissent<\/h2>\n

Three justices dissented, including Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.<\/p>\n

Writing for the minority, Bradley said a drop box \u201cis a simple and perfectly legal solution to make voting easier, especially in the midst of a\u00a0global pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is apparently a bridge too far for a majority of this court, which once again rejects a practice that would expand voter participation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Bradley took issue with allowing two Wisconsin voters to challenge the guidance.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaken to its logical conclusion, the majority\/lead opinion indicates that any registered voter would seemingly have standing to challenge any election law. The impact of such a broad conception of\u00a0voter standing is breathtaking and especially acute at a time of increasing, unfounded challenges to election results and election administrators,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

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July 8, 2022 at 04:18PM Wisconsin Supreme Court: Ballot Drop Boxes Are Illegal Drop boxes that enable people to drop off ballots cast by themselves and others are illegal under Wisconsin law, the state\u2019s Supreme Court ruled on July 8. The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) in two documents in 2020 said drop boxes can not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,8],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-4304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-integrity","category-featured-stories","tag-sbn"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?fit=1346%2C806&ssl=1",1346,806,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?fit=300%2C180&ssl=1",300,180,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?fit=768%2C460&ssl=1",768,460,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?fit=1024%2C613&ssl=1",1024,613,true],"rpg_gallery_admin_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"rpg_gallery_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?fit=1346%2C806&ssl=1",1346,806,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?fit=1346%2C806&ssl=1",1346,806,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Peter Santilli"]},"category_info":"Election Integrity<\/a> Featured Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured Stories","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-08-at-4.27.28-PM.png?fit=1346%2C806&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/plD2r-17q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4307,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304\/revisions\/4307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}