Wisconsin election officials issue guidance to clerks on using absentee ballot drop boxes

MADISON — Wisconsin’s bipartisan Elections Commission on Thursday unanimously approved guidance for absentee ballot drop boxes following the state Supreme Court’s July 5 ruling that restored their use ahead of the Aug. 13 partisan primaries and the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The guidance for Wisconsin clerks touched on drop box accessibility and safety, including recommendations to clearly mark drop boxes and communicate the last date to submit ballots.

“The Supreme Court made clear that it's up to each municipal clerk to decide whether they wish to use drop boxes and where to place them and the like,” WEC chair Ann Jacobs told the Journal Sentinel. “Our guidance is there to help clerks implement best practices for those drop boxes to ensure that voters are able to safely use them and the ballots can be secure and safely retrieved.”

Democrats hailed last week’s ruling as a win following arguments that the longstanding practice of allowing voters to file ballots into the locked, unmanned boxes made voting more accessible. Former President Donald Trump and Republicans heavily criticized the process in 2020, claiming without evidence that the boxes and absentee voting were rife with fraud.

“The decision to allow drop boxes is terrific. It's so good for voters. It allows much easier return of ballots,” Jacobs said. “Our guidance is there to help that happen and to use the best practices so that voters can return their ballots with confidence.”

The guidance also recommended clerks place drop boxes in well-lit areas, report any damage and empty boxes before they become full. It recommended documenting the time, person and number of ballots counted when boxes are emptied. The commission did not adopt an emergency rule requiring municipalities to follow the rules; the guidance is not mandatory.

Republican Party of Wisconsin chair Brian Schimming on Thursday again criticized the drop box decision as “political” and “interfering in the Legislature’s prerogative on how to set election laws and campaign laws in this state,” but said he feels confident in Wisconsin’s election integrity.

“We want to have a cooperative relationship with the clerks around the state," Schimming told reporters. "There’s nobody on the face of the planet that wants this election to go more smoothly than I do.”

Last week’s ruling from the state's liberal-controlled Supreme Court overturned a July 2022 decision from the court’s then-conservative majority that held ballot drop boxes were illegal in Wisconsin. Conservative justices in their 4-3 ruling at the time said state law did not permit drop boxes anywhere other than election clerk offices.

"Our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes. It merely acknowledges what (state law) has always meant: that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion," Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in the latest majority opinion.

Drop boxes had been used in Wisconsin and other states since the 1980s and 1990s. But they became a focal point during the coronavirus pandemic as a way to help voters cast ballots while limiting interaction with other people. Hundreds of absentee drop boxes were installed across Wisconsin in 2020, and more than 40% of all votes cast that year were through absentee ballots.

Republicans began to scrutinize the drop boxes following President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes four years ago. Trump sought to persuade lawmakers and judges to overturn the battleground state's election result. In doing so, he argued ballots returned in drop boxes amounted to voter fraud despite a lack of evidence to support the claims.

Despite the heavy scrutiny from Republicans, drop boxes were used widely in Wisconsin, including in conservative areas. In spring 2021, there were about 570 drop boxes in Wisconsin, according to court filings. Out of Wisconsin's 72 counties, at least 66 had drop boxes as of spring 2021, PolitiFact Wisconsin noted.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Election officials approve guidance to clerks on ballot drop boxes