The Wisconsin Supreme Court says ballot drop boxes aren't allowed in the state

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that most ballot drop boxes aren’t allowed in the state and that a voter can’t have someone else return — in person — their completed absentee ballot on their behalf.

The high court’s ruling Friday, which comes one month before the swing state’s primary elections, is a loss for voting rights groups and disability advocates.

The decision is the latest in a legal battle that began in January, after a Waukesha County judge sided with a conservative legal group in a lawsuit, declaring state law doesn’t allow for unstaffed ballot drop boxes and requires that voters physically return their own absentee ballots.

Although an appeals court temporarily blocked the order for contests in February, the ban was in effect for local elections in April.

“The key phrase is ‘in person’ and it must be assigned its natural meaning,” wrote Justice Rebecca Bradley for the conservative majority, referring to the state statute governing ballot returns. “‘In person’ denotes ‘bodily presence’ and the concept of doing something personally.”

Bradley wrote that absentee ballots must be delivered in person at a clerk’s office and cannot be returned by someone else. The ruling did not address whether someone must physically put their own absentee ballot in the mailbox if voting by mail.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley (no relation to her colleague) wrote that the court’s decision “although lamentable, is not a surprise.”

“It has seemingly taken the opportunity to make it harder to vote or to inject confusion into the process whenever it has been presented with the opportunity,” she wrote. “Without justification, [the majority] fans the flames of electoral doubt that threaten our democracy.”

In a statement Friday afternoon, the group Disability Rights Wisconsin noted the court “declined to address the question of whether an elector may receive assistance with mailing their completed absentee ballot.”

“The right for voters with disabilities to have assistance from a person of their choice is protected by federal law. Nothing in this decision changes federal protections for people with disabilities,” the organization’s Barbara Beckert said in a statement. “Voters with disabilities who need ballot delivery assistance may want to contact their municipal clerk to ask for a disability related accommodation.”

All eyes were on Justice Brian Hagedorn as the case made its way through the courts. Hagedorn, who sided with the high court’s conservative justices on this case, was elected with the help of the Republican Party but has sided with the court’s liberal justices on several occasions.

In a concurring opinion, Hagedorn stressed that “judicial decision-making and politics are different.”

“Significant questions remain despite our decision in this case, especially as absentee voting has become increasingly common,” he wrote, adding: “The legislature and governor may wish to consider resolving some of the open questions these statutes present.”

“WEC’s staff may have been trying to make voting as easy as possible during the pandemic, but whatever their motivations, WEC must follow Wisconsin statutes,” Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote. “Good intentions never override the law.”

Rick Esenberg — president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which represented the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit — cheered the ruling.

“Wisconsin voters can have confidence that state law, not guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has the final word on how Wisconsin elections are conducted,” he said in a statement.

Esenberg argued before the high court that the statute governing ballot return is explicit that only voters themselves can return their absentee ballot to the local clerk.

“I think [the court] ought to read the law as it is written, and say that the law means what it says,” he said in an interview with NPR in May.

Esenberg said if people think the law is unfair, it’s up to state lawmakers to change it.

But disability rights advocates have said a strict interpretation of state law leaves many voters with disabilities who rely on ballot return assistance fearful they won’t be able to lawfully vote.

“We heard from people who were concerned, confused and, frankly, shocked by such an extreme restriction,” Beckert of Disability Rights Wisconsin told NPR after the Waukesha County judge’s ruling.

Scott Thompson of Law Forward — which represented the appellants in the case, including Disability Rights Wisconsin — told NPR the initial ruling conflicted with federal protections for voters with disabilities, like the Voting Rights Act, which in part grants voters with disabilities the right to receive voting assistance from a person of their choosing, other than that person’s employer or union representative.

The court’s decision stands to significantly affect the upcoming elections in the swing state, where about 2 million residents voted by absentee in the 2020 general election, a record number.

According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, there were 570 absentee ballot drop boxes being used across the state by last spring.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4066707/posts
Wisconsin Voters Sue Democrat Cities Over Illegal Drop Boxes In 2020 Election

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“In 2020, the cities of Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay made an agreement with the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life [CTCL] to use the drop boxes to get these cities’ residents to vote,” said Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal in a press release. “This so-called ‘Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan,’ involved $8.8 million of private grants to these five cities, to target specific populations to vote. It had little, if anything at all to do with keeping voters safe from Covid-19, as it purported to do.”
...

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4010068/posts
Racine County Sheriff Calls For Felony Charges Against Wisconsin Election Commissioners

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After her mother died on October 9, 2020, Judy discovered a vote in the November 2020 presidential election had been cast in her mother’s name. In an affidavit originally filed with the Wisconsin Election Commission, Judy stated that she believed the residential care facility had taken “advantage” of her mother’s “diminished mental capacity and filled out ballot(s) in her name.”

While their investigation focused on Ridgewood Care Facility, during the press conference, Schmaling and Luell made clear that the fundamental violation of election law occurred when the Wisconsin Election Commission, or WEC, directed municipalities not to “use the Special Voting Deputy process to service residents in care facilities,” and instead to “transmit absentee ballots to those voters by mail.”

As Luell detailed in the October 28 press conference, Section 6.875 of the Wisconsin election code provides the “exclusive means” of absentee voting in residential care facilities, and that statute requires the local municipality to dispatch two special voting deputies, or “SVDs,” to a facility. The election code further requires the SVDs to personally deliver a ballot to residents of the facility, and then witness the voting process. And only a relative or an SVD may assist the voter in the process, and once voting is complete, the SVD must seal the ballot envelope and deliver it to the clerk.

By directing municipalities not to use SVD, as required by state law, Luell explained, the WEC appeared to violate Section 12.13(2)(b)(7) of the Wisconsin Election Code, entitled “Election Fraud.” That section expressly provides that it is a crime if, “in the course of the person’s official duties or on account of the person’s official position,” the official “intentionally violates or intentionally causes any other person to violate any provision” of the election code, “for which no other penalty is expressly prescribed.”

Also noted were several other relevant criminal provisions, including the crime of receiving a ballot from, or giving a ballot to, a person other than the election officer in charge, or receiving a complete ballot from a voter unless qualified to do so. Here, Luell explained how ballots were handled by low-level employees, kept unsealed in drawers, and otherwise maintained in violation of state law.

Whether to charge these crimes is a matter for prosecutors to decide, the sheriff and his lead investigator explained. However, given that Racine County is just “one of 72 counties,” and “Ridgewood is one of 11 facilities within our county,” they encouraged the state attorney general to launch his own investigation.

It doesn't matter where Fauci is. He could be at the bottom of the ocean, getting eaten by crabs. He did his job in 2020 and laid the groundwork for everything going forward.

Well he is not doing “the job” on anybody this year. DeSantis will have him for lunch and spit him out if he tried his thievery in Florida. The Dems WILL lose in November.

Outside of the great news in Wisconsin, can you detail any other significant events?

You are kidding right?
Been living on Mars?
Where were you when the Dem state legislators run away like beaten dogs to DC to try and prevent the great ballot reform laws from passing in Texas and still FAILED anyways when the anti ballot fraud laws passed?
That is just one example of many anti ballot fraud laws passed since Dementia Joe STOLE the elections. All posted here on FR.

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