The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling a ban on the use of mobile voting sites in the upcoming presidential elections that are currently taking place, a victory for the Republicans.
However, in a victory for Democrats, the court late Tuesday also allowed municipalities in the battleground state to use the same method used since 2016 to determine where to locate early voting locations for the upcoming August primary and presidential elections in November.
They simply can’t use cell sites like Racine did in 2022, when ballots could be cast in a van driving around town.
The order came just before Wednesday’s deadline for municipalities to designate alternate locations where voters could cast early and absentee ballots.
Wisconsin state law prohibits placing an early voting site in a location that provides an advantage to a political party. The present case concerns how that law should be interpreted.
The Racine County Circuit Court said in January that mobile ballot drop boxes in Racine were not allowed under the law. In addition, the van was placed in areas that were advantageous to Democrats, also contrary to the law, the court ruled.
According to the court, state law means that an advantage for a political party can only be avoided if voters in the immediate vicinity of the early voting location vote exactly the same as voters who live in the immediate vicinity of the municipal clerk’s office.
The Supreme Court suspended that interpretation on Tuesday.
“At this stage, just months before the August primaries and November general election, there is a risk that the court’s ruling will disrupt ongoing preparations for those elections by creating uncertainty about which locations could be designated as alternative voting locations for absentees,” the court said. said in his 4-3 order, backed by the Liberal majority.
Justice Rebecca Bradley, one of three dissenting conservative justices, said the liberal majority’s order was the latest in a “continued effort to resolve cases in a way that benefits its preferred political party.”
Bradley said suspending a court’s interpretation of the law is “without precedent, and for good reason – it doesn’t make sense.” She and the other two conservative justices agreed with the four liberal justices in upholding the court’s ban on mobile voting sites.
The underlying case continues in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is expected to hear oral arguments in the fall, too late to affect absentee voting rules for this year’s election.
As the case continues, the Election Commission has asked the Supreme Court to suspend the court’s earlier ruling in light of Wednesday’s deadline for selecting early election locations.
The Supreme Court said Tuesday that there would be little harm in granting a delay, keeping the same criteria for determining early voting locations as it has since 2016. But it declined to lift the ban on mobile voting sites, a victory for the Republicans. .
The van was first used in Racine’s 2022 municipal election. It was purchased with grant money Racine received from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, the nonprofit funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. Republicans have been critical of the subsidies, calling the money “Zuckerbucks” that they say was used to tilt turnout in Democratic areas.
Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment in April that bans the use of private money to run elections.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the lawsuit on behalf of Ken Brown, chairman of the Republican Party of Racine County, after the state elections commission said the use of the van in Racine did not violate the law.
“We are pleased that Racine’s illegal ballot drop box will not be used for the upcoming elections,” WILL attorney Lucas Vebber said in a statement.
Officials from Racine, the Democratic National Committee and the Milwaukee-based voting advocacy group Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, along with the election commission, defended the use of the van.
Timothy White, spokesman for President Joe Biden’s campaign in Wisconsin, said the part of the order that uses the same criteria for choosing early voting locations was a “win for democracy.”
