Wisconsin Supreme Court allows ballot boxes to be banned for April election

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that it will allow a ban on the use of ballot drop boxes for the upcoming April election, though the ruling will not affect primaries scheduled for next week, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

In a 4-3 ruling, the state’s high court allowed a ban that will prohibit ballot drop boxes from being used in the upcoming April election, upholding a lower court’s ruling from January, the news outlet noted.  

The challenge to the use of ballot drop boxes came from the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of two voters from Waukesha County last summer, contesting the use of absentee ballot drop boxes. 

The lawsuit claims that absentee ballots can only be dropped off by hand or by mail and claimed that election statutes had been incorrectly interpreted by the Wisconsin Elections Commission regarding the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots.

A Waukesha County Circuit court judge sided with the two voters, though an appeals court noted that because the February primary was rapidly approaching, it stepped in to rule that the ballot boxes would be used for the primaries, according to the Journal Sentinel.

However, the news outlet noted that the state’s high court is still expected to make a final decision about the status of ballot boxes for future use and whether elections down the road will be able to employ them.

The news comes as legislators across the country are looking into legislation and other means to curb access to voting. Three states are considering legislation that would curb absentee ballot access while the legislation to end the use of ballot drop boxes for returning ballots is being considered in two other states. 

Former President Trump has baselessly claimed voter fraud and irregularities occurred during the 2020 presidential election, prompting some Republicans to push for audits in battleground states, though the results continue to prove that President Biden won the 2020 election.