Wisconsin governor urges state Supreme Court to revoke restrictions on absentee ballot drop boxes

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers urged the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that banned absentee ballot drop boxes beyond the confines of election clerks’ offices in the presidential battleground state.

In a filing the day of Wisconsin’s presidential primary, Evers asked the court to overturn a 2022 ruling that limited drop box locations. Former President Donald Trump had claimed without evidence that drop boxes led to voter fraud when he lost the state in the 2020 election. Wisconsin’s high court was controlled by conservative justices at the time. It has since flipped to liberal control and the current justices agreed last month to revisit the case brought by Priorities USA, a liberal voter mobilization group, and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Voters. Oral arguments are May 13.

Wisconsin law is silent on drop boxes. Liberal advocates argue that translates into it being legal to distribute them around communities. In his filing Tuesday, Evers said the 2022 court misinterpreted what it means to return a ballot to an election clerk.

“Depositing a ballot into a drop box maintained by the municipal clerk is a personal delivery to the municipal clerk in much the same way as a ballot is mailed when an individual drops it in the mailbox without waiting to watch it be collected by the postal carrier,” the filing argues.

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