Wisconsin Supreme Court to review decision on ballot drop box usage

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will reconsider a pivotal 2022 ruling that dramatically pared back the use of ballot drop boxes, a case that comes in the crucial swing state during an election year.

The state’s high court is set to start oral arguments in the case Monday. The court now has a 4-3 liberal majority, meaning that there is the potential for the 2022 ruling — when the court had a 4-3 conservative majority — to be overturned ahead of the November election. The decision will be closely watched given the stakes of the coming election.

Democrats have been pushing hard to overturn the 2022 ruling, which limited the use of absentee ballot drop boxes solely to the offices of election clerks. Former President Donald Trump has falsely claimed that the widespread use of ballot drop boxes in 2020 led to voter fraud.

Meanwhile, Republicans and other conservative groups have been pushing for the 2022 ruling to be upheld, filing several briefs with the state’s Supreme Court over the matter, according to NBC News.

Brian Schimming, chairman of the Wisconsin GOP, questioned the security of such drop boxes and said their re-expanded use could lead to “the possibility for hijinks.”

“I’m not hostile to looking at things differently,” Schimming said, “but we’re six months away” from the election, and “we have a Supreme Court who feels as though they’re the second Legislature.”

But Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, said that more drop boxes would make voting accessible for more people in the Badger State.

“Despite worries and claims by election deniers and conspiracy theorists, drop boxes were not used for any nefarious purpose like they’ve claimed,” he said.

Wisconsin is a key state in the battle for both the White House and over who will control the U.S. Senate.

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Trump won Wisconsin by less than 1%, or about 23,000 votes, back in 2016, while President Joe Biden won the state by an even more narrow margin of just over 20,000 votes in 2020. Every major political analysis and polling group rates the state as a toss-up for this year’s presidential contest, which is expected to be a rematch between Biden and Trump.

In the battle for the Senate, incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is facing a challenge from Republican businessman Eric Hovde. Polling in that race indicates that Baldwin is ahead.