Wisconsin Judge Rules Election Officials Can Send Absentee Ballots to Disabled Voters Electronically

Wednesday, June 26th, 2024 -- 11:00 AM

(AP) Local election officials in battleground state Wisconsin will be allowed to send absentee ballots to disabled voters electronically in November’s presidential election, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell issued a temporary injunction that allows voters who self-certify that they can’t read or mark a paper ballot without help to request absentee ballots electronically from local clerks.

The voters can then cast their ballots at home using devices that help them read and write independently. They will still be required to mail the ballots back to the clerks or return them in person, the same as any other absentee voter in the state.

The injunction is part of a larger lawsuit that advocates for disabled voters filed in April. The plaintiffs argued in the filing that many people with disabilities can’t cast paper ballots without assistance, compromising their right to cast a secret ballot, and struggle to return ballots through the mail or in-person.

Any eligible voter can vote by paper absentee ballot in Wisconsin. Anyone could request an absentee ballot electronically until 2011, when then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a Republican-authored law that allowed only military and overseas voters to use that method.

Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, opposes allowing disabled voters to request electronic absentee ballots. His lawyers argued during a hearing on Monday that state election officials don’t have time before November to train Wisconsin’s roughly 1,800 local clerks in how to handle electronic ballot requests from disabled voters and create ballots that can interact with the voters’ assistive devices.

They warned the move would only create confusion and raise security risks. The plaintiffs countered that an electronic ballot delivery system already exists for military and overseas voters and disabled voters deserve the same treatment.

They also have a constitutional right to cast a secret ballot, they maintained.

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