In a victory for election integrity, the left-led Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ban on mobile voting units — at least for now. But the same 4-3 ruling hands Democrats a win in staying the circuit court’s ruling barring alternate absentee ballot collection sites “in locations that confer a ‘partisan advantage’” to one party, as state law dictates.
Wisconsin’s high court is expected to rule on the merits of the case sometime in the fall.
In its ruling staying the order on alternate sites, the liberal majority employed the oft-turned argument that changing “the status quo that has governed every election since 2016” would confuse the process and the voter.
“At this stage, just months before the August primary and November general elections, there is a risk that the circuit court’s ruling will disrupt ongoing preparations for those elections by creating uncertainty about which sites may be designated as alternate absentee balloting locations,” the ruling states. “Granting a stay will, as mentioned previously, simply ensure that the status quo since 2016 continues to govern through the next election.”
But the use of the mobile voting units, described as a “voting booth on wheels,” appeared to be a bridge too far for even this far-left court, at least for now. As the ruling states, “there are counterarguments” diminishing the Democrats’ “likelihood of success on appeal on this issue.”
The main counterargument is, in fact, the law — which clearly does not allow voting booths on wheels in Wisconsin
