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tony evers
'Voters Won Big': Wisconsin Supreme Court Restores Ballot Drop Boxes
"At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote," said Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. "This is a victory for our democracy."
Jul 05, 2024
Democracy defenders in Wisconsin celebrated on Friday after the state Supreme Court ruled that absentee ballot drop boxes can be located throughout communities for the November elections, reversing a decision from two years ago, when there was a majority of right-wing justices.
"Wisconsin voters won big today with the decision to reinstate drop boxes across the Badger State," said All Voting is Local Wisconsin state director Sam Liebert in a statement. "Drop boxes are an incredibly popular form of voting that offer greater access to the elections for those who may not be able to wait in line at the polls, particularly those with disabilities."
"Wisconsin voters should have more options, and drop boxes are a secure and easy way to increase civic participation and ensure voters have another safe, secure, and accessible way to cast their ballot," Liebert added.
Common Cause Wisconsin co-chair Penny Bernard Schaber, whose group joined an amicus brief to the court in May, also welcomed the ruling, saying that "reinstating the use of secure ballot drop boxes is good for all of us in Wisconsin."
"It is especially good for individual voters who have mobility issues and time constraints that make it difficult for them to go into and out of a polling place or an election clerk's office," the former Democratic state representative similarly stressed. "Secure ballot drop boxes are a necessary and safe way to return our ballots."
Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) declared: "This is huge news for democracy! Making it easier for folks to vote is a good thing."
Common Cause Wisconsin pointed out that "voter drop boxes have been used since before 2016 and in 2020-21, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of drop boxes was expanded to 570 located in 66 of Wisconsin's 72 counties. The expanded number of drop boxes, authorized by the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), offered voters a more convenient and safe way to ensure that their absentee ballots could be returned in time to be counted, in part because of the uncertainty of timely delivery of ballots by the U.S. Postal Service."
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in the majority opinion that "our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes. It merely acknowledges what Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1. has always meant: that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion."
She was joined by the other three liberals, including Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose election last year ended right-wing control of the court. Wisconsinites are preparing for a similar electoral battle next year, when Walsh Bradley plans to retire.
The court earlier this week agreed to take up a pair of high-profile abortion cases. Late last year, the liberal majority threw out Wisconsin's legislative maps, which were rigged to favor Republicans. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed new maps in February.
Applauding the ruling on Friday, Evers said that the court "affirmed what we've been saying all along: Drop box voting is safe, secure, and legal, and local clerks should be empowered to make decisions that make sense for their local communities."
"At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote," he continued. "This is a victory for our democracy. And we're going to keep fighting to ensure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot safely, securely, and as easily as possible to make sure their voices are heard."
The decision comes as Wisconsin is expected to play a key role in this year's contest for the White House. Democratic President Joe Biden, who is now seeking reelection and campaigning in Wisconsin on Friday, won the state by about 20,000 votes in 2020, when he beat former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican nominee.
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Ending Reign of GOP Gerrymandering, Evers Approves Fair Maps in Wisconsin
"Wisconsin, for the first time in over a decade, we will not have some of the most gerrymandered maps in America," Evers said.
Feb 19, 2024
For the first time since 2011, Wisconsin has state Assembly and Senate maps that do not unconstitutionally favor Republican candidates.
Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, signed new legislative maps into law on Monday that were crafted by his office and approved by the state Supreme Court.
"I've promised from the beginning that I will always try to do the right thing. Today, I'm keeping that promise and I'm signing fair maps for Wisconsin," Evers said in a statement posted on social media. "Wisconsin, for the first time in over a decade, we will not have some of the most gerrymandered maps in America."
"This is a win for Wisconsinites, who for decades have suffered under maps that Republicans gerrymandered to protect their power and allow themselves to obstruct action on popular policies while avoiding accountability at the ballot box."
Evers said that Wisconsin was a "purple state," and that its maps "should reflect that basic fact."
"The people should get to choose their elected officials, not the other way around," Evers continued.
Wisconsin has been one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation since 2011, when Republican lawmakers redrew the state's maps under Gov. Scott Walker. In one recent example, the GOP made so many alterations to the 73rd Assembly District in 2022 that residents said it looked like a Tyrannosaurus rex, according to ProPublica.
Fair election groups saw a chance to challenge the maps in August 2023, when the state's Supreme Court flipped from a conservative to liberal majority with the swearing in of Justice Janet Protasiewicz, who had criticized the maps during her campaign. Advocacy groups and law firms filed a suit on behalf of 19 Democratic Wisconsin voters, and, in December, the court ruled that the maps were unconstitutional because the districts were not "composed of physically adjoining territory" as the state Constitution requires.
The court asked different groups to submit new maps and tasked University of California, Irvine political scientist Bernard Grofman and Carnegie Mellon University political scientist Jonathan Cervas with reviewing them, as Wisconsin Public Radio reported. The experts determined that maps submitted by Evers, the Wisconsin Democrats behind the lawsuit, Democratic state senators, and a group of independent mathematicians were competitive, while two by the state legislature and the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty amounted to gerrymandering. Though Evers' maps are slightly more favorable to Republican candidates, the court determined that, using his maps, "the party that wins the most votes will win the most seats."
"The governor's maps are pretty darn good," said Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin.
The resolution to the fight over Wisconsin's maps came as something of a surprise, as Republican lawmakers had initially opposed Evers' maps before introducing them last week and passing them through both the Assembly and Senate. GOP legislators said they decided that the governor's maps were their best option.
"This fall Republicans will prove that we can win on any maps because we have the better policy ideas for the State of Wisconsin," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, (R-63) said, as Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Most Democrats voted against the maps out of concern that the GOP was not acting in good faith and was in fact preparing a new legal challenge.
"I am voting no because I do not trust what you guys are up to," Sen. Chris Larson, a Milwaukee Democrat, said, as ProPublica reported.
Good governance groups, however, applauded the development.
"This is a win for Wisconsinites, who for decades have suffered under maps that Republicans gerrymandered to protect their power and allow themselves to obstruct action on popular policies while avoiding accountability at the ballot box," Chris Walloch, executive director of A Better Wisconsin Together, said in a statement.
Walloch added that Evers' maps were "a more fair and accurate representation of Wisconsin's diverse communities than other maps proposed by Republicans" and that they would give Wisconsin voters "a renewed chance for competitive elections and a truly representative government for all." He also expressed gratitude to the state Supreme Court and Evers for making the new maps possible.
Walloch concluded: "We deserve a legislature that represents us as constituents and prioritizes our best interests. MAGA faction politicians and their special interest allies have gone to great lengths, and great expense, to protect a rigged system that benefited them, and we will continue to hold accountable any politician who attempts to obstruct today's progress."
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) said they saw the new maps as an opportunity, especially since the entire Wisconsin Assembly and half of its Senate are up for re-election in November, when the new maps will be in use.
"While we still have more work to do to ensure fair representation in each and every Wisconsin community, with these new maps in place, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee reaffirms its commitment to reverse the Republican takeover of this state and shift the balance of power in both the Wisconsin Assembly and the Wisconsin Senate," committee president Heather Williams said in a statement.
"Wisconsin is a top priority for the DLCC in 2024, and we're already hard at work building the campaigns that will fuel our legislative gains this fall," Williams continued. "The time for fair representation in Wisconsin is long overdue, and we are building winning campaigns and sustainable infrastructure to build power this cycle and ultimately take back both majorities."
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Clinging to Trumpian Lies, Wisconsin GOP Tries to 'Illegally Fire' Election Chief
One expert said Republicans are using "extreme tactics" like the Senate vote and threats of impeaching a state Supreme Court justice "to subvert fair elections and maintain anti-democratic grip on power."
Sep 14, 2023
Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on Thursday swiftly filed a lawsuit after Republican senators attempted to oust the state's top election official, Meagan Wolfe, despite arguments that they lacked authority to do so.
The Wisconsin Senate's 22-11 party-line vote on Wolfe was "a bid to give election deniers and conspiracy theorists more control over how elections are run in the state," explainedMother Jones national voting rights correspondent Ari Berman.
"That follows threats by Republican legislative leaders to impeach newly elected state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz before she has even ruled on a case," he added, "so that the court's new 4-3 liberal majority will be unable to strike down the heavily gerrymandered maps that have been integral to the GOP's stranglehold over the Legislature for the past decade-and-a-half."
Wolfe began serving as interim administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) in early 2018 and was unanimously confirmed by the state Senate the following year. As Politico reported Thursday:
Wolfe's position is a nonpartisan, nonvoting one tasked with implementing the decisions made by the three Democratic and three Republican commissioners.
As the head of the commission, Wolfe has been the target of GOP attacks following the 2020 presidential election, when President Joe Biden narrowly beat former President Donald Trump in the state. Wolfe has garnered vitriol from Republicans who amplified Trump's false claims about widespread fraud in the election.
The administrator's term expired on July 1, but the WEC's three Democrats abstained from voting to renominate Wolfe because they feared GOP senators would refuse to confirm her and, as Kaul highlighted last month, "the Wisconsin Supreme Court has squarely held that a holdover appointee may legally remain in office following the expiration of the term."
GOP legislators—led by Senate Majority Leader (R-9) Devin LeMahieu—went ahead with the vote on Thursday even though "the Republicans' own lawyers, as well as the state's Democratic attorney general, told the senators before the vote that they didn't have the authority to remove Meagan Wolfe," according toThe Washington Post.
"Wisconsin Republicans' attempt to illegally fire Wisconsin's elections administrator without cause today shows they are continuing to escalate efforts to sow distrust and disinformation about our elections, denigrate our clerks, poll workers, and election administrators, and undermine basic tenets of our democracy, including the peaceful transfer of power," declared Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Referencing a "bogus" bill unveiled earlier this week by GOP leaders, the governor said that "just days after Republicans announced they want Legislature-picked, Legislature-approved map drawers to conduct redistricting, Republicans today demonstrated why they cannot be trusted with that important responsibility—because they will threaten, intimidate, punish, and even attempt to illegally fire anyone who stands in the way of their relentless pursuit to retain political power."
"Our chief election administrator is a consummate, qualified professional who's worked in voter registration and outreach and election security for more than a decade—experience that I have no doubt was among the reasons she was unanimously confirmed by many of these same Republicans just a few years ago," he added. "I'm requesting the Wisconsin Department of Justice provide immediate representation to defend Ms. Wolfe so she can remain in this important role."
The Wisconsin attorney general, who filed a complaint in Dane County Circuit Court, said that "the story today is not what the Senate has purported to do with its vote. It's that the Senate has blatantly disregarded state law in order to put its full stamp of approval on the ongoing baseless attacks on our democracy."
"We are going to court to minimize the confusion resulting from today's stunt," Kaul continued, "and to protect a pillar of our democracy—the fair administration of elections."
The Cap Times reported that "there is no formal appeals process for Wolfe to tap in order to push back against her ousting, according to the Wisconsin Legislative Council, a nonpartisan agency that provides legal and policy analysis for the Legislature. That leaves a lawsuit as her only option."
Wolfe welcomed the lawsuit and confirmed that she will continue to serve as administrator unless a majority of the WEC or a court orders her out. She said that "the Senate's vote today to remove me is not a referendum on the job I do but rather a reaction to not achieving the political outcome they desire."
The controversy comes as the state prepares for next year's elections. At the presidential level, Biden is seeking reelection and Trump is currently the GOP front-runner, despite facing four criminal cases—including two related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 results—and arguments that inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection constitutionally disqualifies him from holding office.
"I think it's really worrisome because we're in the final stages of preparation for the 2024 elections," Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of its Elections Research Center, told the Post. "The elections commission is training clerks around the state and issuing guidance, so to have uncertainty about who the top administrator is going into this crucial election season, I think is a real problem."
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