Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes Illegal, Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules

WISCONSIN — In a ruling issued Friday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court limited Wisconsinite's ability to return absentee ballots using a drop box during an election.

In a 4-3 vote, the court's conservative majority determined absentee ballot drop boxes can only be placed in election offices and that only the voter can return their own ballot in person. The ruling comes in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic when voters across the Badger State and country flocked to alternative methods of voting such as drop boxes.

The court held that Wisconsin Election Commission guidance concerning ballot drop boxes is invalid because the boxes are illegal under Wisconsin law. The ruling did not address whether or not people must return their own ballot when it's done by mail.

Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote a majority opinion in the case, saying state law does not permit the boxes beyond election clerk offices, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

While WEC staff may have been just attempting to make voting easier during the pandemic, they must follow Wisconsin statutes, Bradley said in her majority opinion.

"Good intentions never override the law," Bradley wrote, according to the Journal Sentinel report.

The ruling left Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson "highly disappointed," he said in a statement posted to Twitter.

In a statement, Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said "today’s decision is another in a long line of Wisconsin Republicans’ successes to make it harder for Wisconsinites to exercise their right to vote, to undermine our free, fair, and secure elections, and to threaten our democracy.”

Evers said politicians should not be able to abuse power to prevent eligible voters from casting ballots, "or cheat by changing the rules just because they didn’t like the outcome of the last election."

Justice Ann Bradley in a dissenting opinion for the minority said the majority's decision "blithely and erroneously seeks to sow distrust in the administration of our elections and through its faulty analysis erects yet another barrier for voters to exercise this 'sacred right.'"

Ann Bradley said the decision "pays lip service" to the import of the right to vote, but "has the practical effect of making it more difficult to exercise it."

Justices Rebecca Dallet and Jill Karofsky joined Bradley's dissenting opinion.

The court's decision has implications for the upcoming August Primary and fall election, as well as for the 2024 presidential election, in which Wisconsin will remain a battleground state.

The court's decision comes months after the Wisconsin Election Commission pulled its guidance on drop boxes, just ahead of Wisconsin's spring election. The move came after an order from the state Supreme Court.

The court's order in February agreed with a Waukesha judge that drop boxes are illegal.

Ballot boxes saw widespread use in Wisconsin amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but came under considerable scrutiny, especially from Republicans. Misinformation surrounding the 2020 presidential election put more attention on the boxes.

Following the previous decision, which came ahead of Wisconsin's spring election, advocates for people with disabilities asserted that having it so people can only return their own ballots may infringe on people's rights.

In February, the U.S. Department of Justice issued guidance on drop boxes. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said the Americans with Disabilities Act requires election officials to provide accessible ballot drop box locations so people with disabilities have the same voting opportunities as others.

SEE ALSO: End Of Drop Boxes In WI? High Court Sustains Ruling To Ban Boxes

The Associated Press contributed to this report.