GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin appeal ruling allowing disabled people to obtain ballots electronically
MADISON, Wis. — Republican lawmakers in the crucial state of Wisconsin filed an appeal Friday a statement which allows people with disabilities to download their ballots at home for the November presidential election.
Disability Rights Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters and four disabled voters filed a lawsuit in April demanding that people with disabilities be allowed to download their ballots at home and return them to local clerks via email this fall.
Currently, anyone in Wisconsin can cast a paper ballot, but they must either return it to their local election clerks in person or mail it back. Anyone could request an absentee ballot electronically until 2011, when then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a Republican-authored bill that allowed only military and overseas voters to use this method. Those voters must still mail their ballots back, as must voters who are absentee in the state.
The plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit that many people with disabilities cannot cast paper ballots without assistance, jeopardizing their right to cast a secret ballot and causing them to struggle to return ballots by mail or in person. The lawsuit asks for a ruling that would allow people with disabilities to download mail-in ballots, cast them at home using tools and return them via email to clerks in the Aug. 13 primary and the November presidential elections.
Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction allowing clerks to electronically send voters who self-certify they cannot read or mark a paper ballot without assistance in the November election. However, they will still have to return the ballots in person or by mail.
GOP lawmakers filed an appeal Friday with the Republican-heavy 2nd District Court of Appeals in Waukesha. The lawmakers said they plan to argue that Mitchell improperly granted the injunction because the plaintiffs are unlikely to prevail and have not shown that they would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction. They also plan to argue that Mitchell wrongly disrupted the status quo just months before the election.
Doug Poland, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, declined to comment on the case Friday afternoon.
Questions about who can vote absentee and how this happened political flashpoint in Wisconsin, where four of the last six presidential elections were decided by less than one percentage point.
More than thirty states allow certain voters return their ballots either by fax, email or an online portal, according to data collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures and Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that studies state voting systems. The method has been expanded in recent years to include disabled voters in a dozen states. Experts have warned, however, that returning electronic ballots carries the risk of ballot interception or tampering and should be used sparingly.
People with disabilities have been embroiled in several legal battles over access to the ballot box in recent years, as many Republican-led states have limited how and when people can vote. One of the issues they have been fighting is about borders the types of assistance a voter can receive and whether someone else can return a voter’s mail-in ballot.
According to statistics from state health officials, nearly 100,000 adults in Wisconsin suffer from vision problems. Just over 307,000 adults have difficulty moving, including difficulty walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting or carrying things.
A Dane County judge on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction allowing people with disabilities to download ballots for the November presidential election but still requiring them to return the ballots in person or by mail. GOP lawmakers filed an appeal on Friday, saying they plan to argue that the plaintiffs are unlikely to prevail and that the injunction disrupts the status quo just months before the election.