Thread by @MattBatzel

BREAKING: Wisconsin judge rules drop boxes are illegal, WIsconsin Elections Commission (WEC) gave unlawful guidance in 2020 election npr.org/2022/01/13/107… #wiright #dropboxes

Judge Bohren ruled that the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) guidance documents on absentee ballot drop boxes, issued in 2020, should have gone through the rules process.

WEC advice was contrary to state law. Voting is a constitutional right, but state law makes clear that, “voting by absentee ballot is a privilege exercised wholly outside the traditional safeguards of the polling place.”

Lawsuit was brought by @WILawLiberty

Flashback to Trump v. Biden litigation (Dec 2020) WI Justice Roggensack dissent: "drop boxes are not found anywhere in the absentee voting
statutes. Drop boxes are nothing more than another creation of WEC to get around the requirements of Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1..."

The plain, unambiguous words of § 6.87(4)(b)1. require that voted ballots 'shall be mailed by the elector, or delivered in person, to the municipal clerk issuing the ballot or ballots.' Drop boxes do not meet the legislature's mandatory directive. "

"B/c drop boxes are not separately identified as a source of illegal voting in this lawsuit, I will not dwell on the accountability problems they create, but I do not doubt that challenges to drop boxes in general and in specific instances will be seen as problems in future"

More Roggensack: "but I do not doubt that challenges to drop boxes in general and in specific instances will be seen as problems in future elections. Therefore, we may have the opportunity to examine them in a case arising from a subsequent election."