The Ongoing Clash over Using Ballot Drop Boxes in Wisconsin

Frederica Freyberg:
Now to other election news. The number of absentee ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin has plummeted since the 2020 election, falling out of favor in many places across the state after voting fraud conspiracies called their use into question. The Wausau mayor made a splash when he moved the box outside City Hall there, without the permission of the municipal clerk, even prompting an ongoing investigation from the state Department of Justice. The Wausau ballot drop box is back in place for voters, but as “Here & Now” reporter Steven Potter explains, the recent history of the boxes has led to changing access to them.

Sam Liebert:
We believe that the more communities that use the drop box, we’ll have better turnout and it will offer more, more people to participate in our democratic process.

Dale Schmidt:
I think that a ballot drop box does create opportunity for those that want to circumvent the law.

Steven Potter:
The use of ballot drop boxes has been on and off and on again over the last few years in Wisconsin. These boxes were the target of court cases and wide-ranging conspiracy theories since they became popular during the pandemic and heavily used during the presidential election of 2020. The boxes themselves are simple. They look a lot like a mailbox. They’re locked, bolted to the ground and are usually placed near government buildings like City Hall, a public library or fire station. Their function is to collect absentee voting ballots before Election Day. Voter outreach advocates like Sam Liebert say that ballot drop boxes are part of opening the elective process to as Sam Liebert many voters as possible.

Sam Liebert:
A lot of people that we’ve talked to who like having absentee ballot drop boxes are folks especially like single parents, people who — may be like third shift workers, nurses, things like that. But at the end of the day, there are large swaths of our population that either can’t or don’t want to vote on Election Day. Maybe they requested their ballot too late. And so maybe they don’t have enough time to return that in the mail. And so a ballot drop box makes the most sense.

Steven Potter:
Those opposed to ballot drop boxes, like Sheriff Dale Schmidt of Dodge County, say that their use raises too many questions around security and counterfeit voting.

Dale Schmidt:
I think if you look back to the 2020 election, we had, whether it was legitimate or not, the perception that drop boxes were creating fraud. Even if there’s a perception of fraud, it can cast doubt on the entire election system.

Steven Potter:
Before last August’s primary election, Sheriff Schmidt sent three municipal clerks in the county a letter questioning the security of their ballot drop boxes.

Dale Schmidt:
It wasn’t necessarily to say, you can’t have a drop box. In fact, I told them it’s their right to do that. My preference is that they not have them until they have those processes in place. And at the end of the day, those three clerks, the only three in the county that were considering it, all decided it was in the best interest of their municipality to not have the drop box.

Steven Potter:
Around Wisconsin, a number of other municipal clerks have decided against letting their voters use drop boxes, including in the southeast corner of the state, in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, where voter turnout is always high and always heavily scrutinized. Elena Hilby is the clerk for the City of Sun Prairie, and she’s also the president of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association.

Elena Hilby:
The municipal clerk has the authority over the drop box. They will decide whether it’s appropriate to use in their community and how to use them.

Steven Potter:
Hilby says there are several reasons why a clerk may choose not to use a ballot drop box.

Elena Hilby:
It could be political pressure. It could be that they don’t have the infrastructure. They don’t have a way to secure it. It could be that their communities don’t need it. They don’t require it.

Steven Potter:
Conflicts over ballot drop boxes began when the then conservative majority over the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the boxes were illegal, but last July, now with a liberal majority, the court ruled that drop boxes could again be used in elections. The Wisconsin Elections Commission has offered guidance on drop box security and ballot collection, but how many of the boxes are in use for this election? Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe says there are an estimated 78 boxes across the state. That’s compared to 500 ballot drop boxes used during the 2020 election. Sam Liebert of the All Voting Is Local group is also trying to track it.

Sam Liebert:
Our organization is tracking about 60 or 70 municipalities that have decided not to use drop boxes.

Steven Potter:
Two communities that will certainly be using ballot drop boxes this November are the state’s largest cities, Madison and Milwaukee. Paulina Gutierrez is the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission. She says that the placement of the city’s 15 ballot drop boxes at libraries and city hall was very deliberate.

Paulina Gutierrez:
I think for the most part the cameras have always been there as part of the Milwaukee Public Library and in our city Hall complex and our operations center, we just installed the ballot drop boxes where there is a camera. So they’ve always been under 24-hour surveillance. I think it helps to give the voters some confidence in what we’re doing, and if there is a situation where we need to investigate, we have that evidence.

Steven Potter:
With Wisconsin being a key battleground state for the presidential election, some groups have discussed plans for monitoring or even videotaping people using ballot drop boxes. Gutierrez says that’s allowed, but also warns these would be watchers.

Paulina Gutierrez:
We don’t mind having observers. I think what’s important to know that is if an observer is disrupting the process, we will act swiftly and immediately and contact law enforcement if we have to.

Steven Potter:
For “Here & Now,” I’m Steven Potter.