Elections

Jay Heck on use of absentee ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin

Common Cause in Wisconsin Executive Director Jay Heck discusses a series of state court rulings about the status of absentee ballot drop boxes and election administration goals for their use in 2024.

By Jane McCauley | Here & Now

October 30, 2024

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Jay Heck:
Well, the drop boxes, the ballot drop boxes had been in place from 2016 to 2022. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a very narrow decision by the conservatives, who then controlled it, banned their use. And by the way, Wisconsin was the only state outside of the Deep South that got rid of the use of ballot drop boxes. They're incredibly important for people in rural areas and in urban areas to be able to return their absentee ballots on time, because the U.S. Mail, if you wait till the week before the election, the U.S. Mail will not always deliver your absentee ballot to the clerk on time and it doesn't arrive by Election Day. If it arrives the day after, it's not counted. So, those ballot boxes are critical, particularly in close elections, because every vote counts, as we've said. So, yeah, it may be confusing only in this sense that if they are available in your community, you should use them. And if you want to return your absentee ballot, you should, especially the week before the election, because the U.S. Mail's not going to be very dependable, but it's up to the clerk in each city in Wisconsin as to whether they want to utilize drop boxes. There are some municipalities where clerks have chosen not to use them. Brookfield in Waukesha County, for instance, they decided they're not going to utilize them. A place like Madison or Milwaukee or Green Bay, they are in use and they are available. They're secure, they're safe, they can't be tampered with. Generally, there's even a camera on most of them. So this idea that they could be utilized for fraud is totally false. It's always been disproven. Again, they also benefit even conservative voters in rural areas who can't make necessarily get to the polling place on time and want to get their ballot in and have their voice count. So, I think it's an important thing. The thing that people need to do though is to check to see whether or not they're available in their municipality.



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