From the Article:
Two Waukesha County municipalities have decided to prevent residents from using absentee ballot drop boxes in the upcoming presidential election. The decision comes after the Wisconsin Supreme Court last month reversed a near-total ban of the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in the state.
The Brookfield Common Council last week voted against allowing residents to use the city’s utility payment drop box outside of City Hall for absentee ballots. Last month, New Berlin took a similar step.
Brookfield Alder Mike Hallquist, who voted against the ban, said the decision from the council was a disappointment. “Essentially what we did as a community is we rolled back a voting method that makes voting more accessible in our community, that we previously had without issue,” Hallquist said.
Absentee voting and the use of ballot drop boxes became a more popular option for voters during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2021, the Wisconsin Elections Commission found there were 570 drop boxes being used in 66 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties.
But the use of the boxes has also become a highly politicized issue in recent years. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservative majority made them illegal in 2022. The election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023 gave the court a liberal majority. In July, the court’s four liberal justices reversed the earlier decision.
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in the majority opinion that the ruling “does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes.”
After that decision, the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued suggested guidance for municipal clerks for their ballot box use, which said the boxes should be affixed to the ground and should be in a well-lit area.
“Ideally, unstaffed 24-hour drop boxes should be located in areas with good lighting and be monitored by video surveillance cameras,” the guidance said. “When this is not feasible, positioning the box close to a nearby camera is a good option.”
The guidance adds that “chain of custody” forms should be completed every time ballots are collected.