As voters head to polls, Gov. Tony Evers urges Supreme Court to restore ballot drop boxes

MADISON - Gov. Tony Evers is asking the state's Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that banned absentee ballot drop boxes beyond election clerks' offices.

Evers filed a brief the same day as the state's presidential primary, asking the court to overturn a 2022 ruling that limited the location of drop boxes in Wisconsin. The brief was filed in a case the court recently agreed to hear.

“All across our country, election officials have chosen to use drop boxes to ensure that all eligible voters can freely cast their ballots. And they’ve done so while keeping ballots safe and secure,” Evers said in a statement.

"At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote ... Drop box 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.”

In his brief, Evers said that the law empowers municipal clerks with the discretion to establish and operate drop boxes in their communities as one option for voting. The current interpretation of the law, he said, has created unnecessary confusion and constraints on local election officials, blocking them from doing what made sense for their communities.

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 from filling in missing address information on absentee ballots. A 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.

Oral arguments are scheduled for May 13.

Drop boxes for absentee ballots had long been in use in Wisconsin but their use exploded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic 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."

Reporter Jessie Opoien contributed to this report.

Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X at @SchulteLaura.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tony Evers urges Wisconsin Supreme Court to restore ballot drop boxes