Ballot boxes have been politicized in Wisconsin, here’s why

Every election season, Wisconsinites turn out in droves and line up one after the other to cast their votes. 

But when dense public gatherings became a health concern amid the 2020 pandemic, demand for absentee voting surged to record highs. Though some states have administered mail-in ballots for decades, some voters still sought out the polls.

As an alternative, ballot drop boxes became a vital tool for voters seeking a convenient and safe way to cast their ballot without needing to congregate at a polling place on Election Day. In 2020, 40 states successfully implemented drop boxes, and Wisconsin alone installed more than 500. Democrats especially were more likely to use mail-in and drop-box methods than Republicans, largely due to their tighter adherence to pandemic health precautions, according to the Pew Research Center.

But as the pandemic receded, these once-simple tools became a flashpoint of political controversy. In 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that election statutes do not explicitly allow for ballot boxes and mandated that no one other than the voter can return a ballot in- person, only for the court to reverse this decision and reinstate ballot boxes earlier this year. 

The fight over ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin is but one front in a battle over election security and accessibility stirred by unsubstantiated election fraud allegations made by former President Donald Trump. Republicans are also advocating for tighter registrant ID laws, which can disproportionately impact voter registration in marginalized groups.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s recent ruling does not change ID or citizenship requirements and simply provides clerks with the option to collect votes in drop boxes.

Months after legalization, ballot boxes remain a source of deep disagreement among public officials and voters across the state. While city officials in Madison and Milwaukee embraced them, several communities in Waukesha and Milwaukee counties have opted out of using drop boxes for November’s election despite public demand.

The safety of ballot boxes

Distrust of drop boxes grew from concerns about their unguarded nature and debunked rumors that they were used to cast multiple or fraudulent votes. Ahead of the 2024 election, the controversy surrounding the boxes has led some vigilantes to watch them for evidence of fraud. 

But out of the stray cases of invalid ballots, very few are intended to defraud the system, Barry Burden, professor of political science and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told The Daily Cardinal. The vast majority of invalid ballots or double ballots are from people who misunderstand registration laws and are broadly detected, he said.

“They're not organized. It's not a group rounding up lots of noncitizens or people from other states to come in and vote,” Burden said.

Vigilantism around drop boxes can lead to misunderstandings about election fraud, Burden said.

“When people are observing drop boxes, if they see someone placing more than one envelope into a box, it's easy to jump to conclusions that there's ballot stuffing going on,” Burden said. “But in Wisconsin, even today, it's legal for a person to put more than one ballot in the box [for] a spouse or family member who has a disability and needs assistance.”

Despite evidence for drop boxes’ security, some are worried about their anonymous, unsupervised nature. Some clerks intending to use drop boxes in Dodge County backtracked after the sheriff warned against “even the appearance of the potential for fraud” degrading trust in the system, according to a WisPolitics report.

“But again, the blue mailbox is also anonymous,” Burden said. “At least the drop box is a direct path from the voter to the clerk. The voter puts their ballot in the drop box, and that day they’ll empty the box and take it directly to the clerk's office.”

Voter accessibility

Supporters of the decision argue drop boxes will give certain voters, including those with disabilities and those in rural areas, easier access to voting. In a state where razor-thin margins are the norm and presidential elections can be decided by less than 1% of the vote, stricter barriers to voting can dissuade enough people from casting their ballot to make a difference.

Civil rights groups including Disability Rights Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin have raised legal challenges over the impact on people with disabilities when absentee options are limited. People with disabilities are over three times more likely to face difficulties voting in person than absentee, according to PBS. While disability accommodations exist, they are not always reliable and can run into potential hiccups with access to transportation and the availability of an assistant.

Drop boxes are intended to resolve some of these challenges. The city of Madison strategically placed them in high-traffic monitored areas that are easy to get to and are on the side of the road where someone can drop their ballot in without needing to walk out of their car.

Drop boxes go beyond a voting amenity in rural communities, where they can serve as critical pieces of infrastructure, Burden said.

“Many clerks in Wisconsin and small towns don't have offices or staff,” Burden said. “The drop box could gather ballots but could also collect their water utility bills or dog license applications or other things that clerks handle in Wisconsin.”

The future of voting

The hot-button issue is not likely to fade in the near future, Burden said.

“I don't think the controversy is going away anytime soon, which is unfortunate because they [drop boxes] have proven themselves to be a safe and convenient way for voters and election officials to do what they need to do in the election,” Burden said. “They could become part of some of the misinformation or disinformation that emerges close to the election, but it's unfortunately just something that's gotten injected into the kind of partisan divide about how elections are run in the U.S.”

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