(Reuters) – A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the use of ballot drop boxes, which increased substantially during the coronavirus pandemic, is illegal under state law.
In a 4-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority also said voters cannot have other people return their completed ballots to a clerk’s office, a practice some voting groups employ to help voters but that conservatives deride as “ballot harvesting.”
The decision ensures that drop boxes will not be in place for the state’s August primary election as well as November’s general election, when Democratic Governor Tony Evers and Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson will both seek re-election in crucial midterm races.
The high court affirmed a ruling from a lower court judge after a conservative group, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, sued the state’s elections commission on behalf of two voters.
Republicans across the country have sought to limit the use of absentee ballots after the 2020 election, when former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that mail voting and drop boxes helped facilitate election fraud.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama; Editing by Colleen Jenkins)
