Wisconsin Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes

Thursday, March 14th, 2024 -- 2:00 PM

(Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) 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.

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.

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