Wisconsin Supreme Court will reconsider ruling limiting absentee ballot drop boxes

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court will consider overturning its own ruling limiting the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, the justices said Tuesday.

The court ruled in July 2022 that absentee drop boxes may be used only in election offices and no one other than the voter can return a ballot in person.

Conservative justices controlled the court at the time, but Janet Protasiewicz’s election victory in April 2023 flipped the court to liberal control, setting the stage for flipping the ruling. Priorities USA, a progressive voter mobilization group, asked the court last month to reconsider the ruling.

The justices issued an order early Tuesday evening saying they would review the ban on drop boxes but won’t reconsider any other parts of the case. Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in dissent that there’s no reason to revisit the decision and the liberal majority is signaling that they intended to declare drop boxes legal in a “shameless effort to readjust the balance of political power in Wisconsin.”

“Overturning (the ruling), a mere two years after its issuance, is nothing but a partisan maneuver designed to give the majority’s preferred political party an electoral advantage,” Bradley wrote. “This is not neutral judging.”

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