![](\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/DropBox-MilwaukeeWI.jpg\")
The Wisconsin Supreme Court appears likely to restore the availability of secure absentee ballot drop-boxes in advance of this year’s pivotal election in the battleground state.<\/p>\nThe Wisconsin Supreme Court appears likely to restore the availability of secure absentee ballot drop-boxes in advance of this year’s pivotal election in the battleground state.<\/p>\n
Last month, in Priorities USA v. Wisconsin Election Commission<\/i>, a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an Order<\/a> which granted a petition to plaintiffs to bypass the court of appeal.<\/p>\n The Court agreed to take up the issue in an expedited fashion as to whether Wisconsin voters will be allowed to deposit their mail-in ballots in secure drop-boxes this year, following a ruling by the Court’s previous majority that drop-box voting was in violation of state law. The order expedited briefing in the matter, and ruled that oral arguments will take place on May 13, 2024…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Tuesday, Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers filed an Opening Brief<\/a> in which he joined petitioner’s assertion that the Court’s former right-wing majority erred when, in Teigan v Wisconsin Elections Commission<\/i><\/a> (2022), it prevented Wisconsin election officials from deploying unmanned, secure drop-boxes. Based upon the text of the pertinent Wisconsin statute, the governor argued that the High Court’s former right-wing majority literally “rewrote the relevant statutory language” in order to ban the use of drop-boxes.<\/p>\n In a dissent to the majority’s order, right-wing Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley, joined by Justice Annette Ziegler, accused the Court’s “openly progressive faction” of attempting “to increase the electoral prospects of their preferred political party.” <\/p>\n According to Gov. Evers’ analysis, however, it was the Court’s former right-wing majority’s unjustified rewriting of the pertinent statute that suggests an effort to provide a GOP political advantage by making it more difficult to cast a mail-in ballot. By contrast, Evers provides non-partisan reasons why drop-boxes benefit all voters:<\/p>\n UPDATE, 7\/6\/24<\/i>:<\/b> By way of a 5-4 decision<\/a>, the WI Supreme Court reversed a circuit court dismissal of a petition seeking declaratory relief that would allow the Wisconsin Elections Commission to restore the availability of secure drop boxes. The majority overruled the former right-wing majority’s decision in Teigen<\/i> because it “distorted” a statute mandating only that drop-box availability be “carefully regulated” into a total ban on the placement of drop-boxes outside an election clerk’s office. <\/p>\n Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote a dissent on behalf of the four right-wing justices who, courtesy of the WI electorate, are now in the minority. <\/p>\n The Wisconsin Supreme Court appears likely to restore the availability of secure absentee ballot drop-boxes in advance of this year’s pivotal election in the battleground state. Last month, in Priorities USA v. Wisconsin Election Commission, a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an Order which granted a petition to plaintiffs to bypass the court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1611,1905,1213,348,143],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-14994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-2024","category-rebecca-bradley","category-tony-evers","category-vote-by-mail","category-wisconsin"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14994"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=14994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The absentee ballot procedure is intended to facilitate absentee voting — particularly for those voters who rely exclusively on that option — while maintaining the integrity of Wisconsin elections.<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/ernest-canning.jpg\")
Ernest A. Canning is a retired attorney, author, and Vietnam Veteran (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968). He previously served as a Senior Advisor to Veterans For Bernie<\/a>.<\/span> Canning has been a member of the California state bar since 1977. In addition to a juris doctor, he has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science. Follow him on twitter: @cann4ing<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"