WI Ballot Drop Box Win Reveals Huge Issue: Top Jurists Don't Care About Election Integrity

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday held that state election officials' use of some 500-plus drop boxes during the 2020 general election violated Wisconsin law.

• The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) illegally authorized election officials to use ballot drop boxes, and exceeded its statutory authority when it declared that voters could hand off their ballots to third parties rather than personally deliver their own ballots to election officials.

Steps Forward

• The Teigen decision advanced the important principle that it is the legislature charged with establishing the rules that govern elections, and "only the legislature may permit absentee voting via ballot drop boxes."
• Declaring illegal the state-wide use of drop boxes and ruling it illegal for third parties to return the ballots of voters ensures that future elections in the battleground state will not be scarred with the same violations of election law.

And Steps Back

• Teigen's concurrence confirms that while Teigen represents a victory for election integrity, it is but a partial victory because the WEC need only issue new and different guidance for future elections which, even if in clear violation of the Wisconsin election code, will control in an election dispute - potentially even determining the outcome of the election.
• The Wisconsin Supreme Court's refusal to overturn Trump v. Biden, however, is nowhere near as devastating to the future of election integrity as is the fact that three of the state's high court justices don't give a **** about the integrity of the vote.

A Growing Distrust

• The WEC's approval of drop boxes not only ignored the legislatively mandated rules for absentee voting but exponentially increased the risk of voter fraud that exists when absentee ballots are returned by the U.S. Postal Service or personally delivered to an election clerk
• Whereas an individual returning numerous absentee ballots to a clerk or mailing them together in one lot would raise suspicions, and be susceptible to discovery, with unmanned drop boxes, there is no similar check on the behavior
• Drop boxes provide a perfect target for those who may wish to intercept votes

 

https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/11/dissent-in-wi-ballot-drop-box-victory-highlights-much-bigger-issue-our-top-jurists-dont-care-about-election-integrity/