GOP lawmakers in critical swing-state Wisconsin are appealing a far-left Dane County judge’s decision sidestepping state election law and allowing voters with disabilities to electronically obtain absentee ballots.
The order also has drawn the concerns of Wisconsin’s Democrat-led Department of Justice, which argues that the electronic distribution of ballots to certain disabled voters presents significant security and logistical challenges.
Interestingly, the legally suspect order was issued by Judge Everett Mitchell, who took heat years ago for asserting at a public forum that shoplifters who steal from big-box retailers shouldn’t be prosecuted.
Tens of Thousands of Voters
Majority Republicans in the legislature last week filed their notice of appeal with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals 2nd District seeking to stop the implementation of Mitchell’s order.
Late last month, Mitchell sided with plaintiffs, including Disability Rights Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters, in a lawsuit asserting that eligible voters with print-reading disabilities who require assistance must forego their right to a secret ballot under current state law.
The lawsuit contends that Wisconsin is not currently complying with “myriad accommodation and equal-access requirements under state and federal law … to ensure that voters with disabilities receive the equal protection guaranteed under the Wisconsin Constitution to cast their votes in secret, like Wisconsin voters without disabilities.”
The judge’s order permits voters with such disabilities to electronically obtain an absentee ballot. Only military members and those traveling overseas are currently permitted to electronically obtain absentee ballots in Wisconsin.
Mitchell granted the liberal groups’ motion
