Ballot drop box procedures to be discussed at state elections meeting

 

MILWAUKEE Wis. (CBS 58) -- State election officials will meet this week to discuss possible guidance for clerks following a recent court order that will allow voters to use ballot drop boxes again.

Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the state Elections Commission, said local clerks could soon have some clarity after the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday overturned a 2022 decision that prohibited unstaffed drop boxes.

"For example, what does a secure drop box look like? Are there best practices available that we can learn from our federal partners or other states that utilize drop boxes," Wolfe said during an election integrity panel in Milwaukee.

The bipartisan Elections Commission, comprised of three Democrats and three Republicans, will be tasked with implementing that guidance during their meeting Thursday, Wolfe said.

Commissioners, who at times have been unable to reach a consensus on election procedures, will have to act quickly with the August primary just five weeks away.

"I don't think it will be as simple as simply referring back to the guidance that was previously out there on drop boxes," said Wolfe. "I think things have probably changed in the last couple of years."

Wolfe did not elaborate on what has changed in two years since drop boxes were last used in Wisconsin.

Former Sen. Kathy Bernier, who leads the nonpartisan election education group Keep our Republic, also spoke at the panel. She urged the commission to give clerks strict guidance on drop boxes because she called the current law a "slippery slope."

"It's not as simple as a drop box," said Bernier, a former county clerk. "You have to know when to pick them up. Every drop box has notified voters their ballot must not go into that box past [a certain time]."

"There's a lot of process and procedures that need to be in place and not for a Supreme Court to just say they are legal. There's a lot more to it than that."

The voting method has been widely criticized by former president Donald Trump and praised by Democrats as a way to expand access to voting.

Trump has falsely claimed drop boxes resulted in cheating and ultimately leading to his narrow defeat in 2020. There has been no proof of widespread fraud from drop boxes and multiple reviews, recounts and court rulings have upheld the results.

It comes as some state and national Republicans are encouraging supporters to embrace absentee voting this election cycle.

On Monday, top officials at the Republican National Committee joined some Wisconsin delegates in headlining a "protect the vote" rally in Waukesha where they called on conservatives to vote early.

It happened hours after the RNC Platform Committee approved a list of priorities ahead of next week's convention including one that contradicts their message calling for "same day voting" and by "paper ballot."

Brian Schimming, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said he wants clerks to have some policies in place on drop boxes before urging supporters to use them.

And if not, "we're going to deal with the law as is because we are here to win," Schimming said.