reach those voters. >> All right, Anthony Chergosky,
we really appreciate you coming down to join us tonight.
>> Thank you. >> Now to other election news.
The number of absentee ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin has
plummeted since the 2020 election, falling out of favor
in many places across the state after voting fraud conspiracies
called their use into question. The Wausau mayor made a splash
when he moved the box outside City Hall there, without the
permission of the municipal clerk, even prompting an ongoing
investigation from the state Department of Justice. The
Wausau ballot drop box is back in place for voters, but as
“Here& Now” reporter Steven Potter explains, the recent
history of the boxes has led to changing access to them.
>> We believe that the more communities that use the drop
box will have better turnout and will offer more, more people to
participate in our democratic process.
box does create opportunity for those that want to circumvent
the law. The use of ballot drop boxes has been on and off and on
again over the last few years in Wisconsin, these boxes were the
target of court cases and wide ranging conspiracy theories
since they became popular during the pandemic and heavily used
during the presidential election of 2020. The boxes themselves
are simple. They look a lot like a mailbox. They're locked,
bolted to the ground and are usually placed near government
buildings like City Hall, a public library or fire station.
Their function is to collect absentee voting ballots before
Election Day. Voter outreach advocates like Sam Liebert say
that ballot drop boxes are part of opening the elective process
to as many voters as possible. >> A lot of people that we've
talked to who like having absentee ballot drop boxes are
folks especially like single parents, people who may be like
third shift workers, nurses, things like that. But at the end
of the day, there are large swaths of our population that
either can't or don't want to vote on Election Day. Maybe they
requested their ballot too late. And so maybe they don't have
enough time to return that in the mail. And so a ballot drop
box makes the most sense. >> Those opposed to ballot drop
boxes, like Sheriff Dale Schmidt of Dodge County, say that their
use raises too many questions around security and counterfeit
voting. >> I think if you look back to
the 2020 election, we had, whether it was legitimate or
not, the perception that drop boxes were creating fraud. Even
if there's a perception of fraud, it can cast doubt on the
entire election system. >> Before last August's primary
election, Sheriff Schmidt sent three municipal clerks in the
county a letter questioning the security of their ballot drop
boxes. >> It wasn't necessarily to say,
you can't have a drop box. In fact, I told them it's their
right to do that. My preference is that they not have them until
they have those processes in place. And at the end of the
day, those three clerks, the only three in the county that
were considering it all, decided it was in the best interest of
their municipality to not have the drop box around Wisconsin.
>> A number of other municipal clerks have decided against
letting their voters use drop boxes, including in the
southeast corner of the state in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties,
where voter turnout is always high and always heavily
scrutinized. Elena Hilby is the clerk for the City of Sun
Prairie, and she's also the president of the Wisconsin
Municipal Clerks Association. >> The municipal clerk has the
authority over the drop box. They will decide whether it's
appropriate to use in their community and how to use them.
>> Hilby says there are several reasons why a clerk may choose
not to use a ballot drop box. >> It could be political
pressure. It could be that they don't have the infrastructure.
They don't have a way to secure it. It could be that their
communities don't need it. They don't require it.
>> Conflicts over ballot drop boxes began when the then
conservative majority over the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in
2022 that the boxes were illegal, but last July, now with
a Liberal majority, the court ruled that drop boxes could
again be used in elections. The Wisconsin Elections Commission
has offered guidance on drop box security and ballot collection,
but how many of the boxes are in use for this election? Elections
Commission Administrator Meagan estimated 78 boxes across the
state. That's compared to 500 ballot drop boxes used during
the 2020 election. Sam Liebert of the all Voting Is Local group
is also trying to track it. >> Our organization is tracking
about 60 or 70 municipalities that have decided not to use
drop boxes. >> Two communities that will
certainly be using ballot drop boxes. This November are the
state's largest cities, Madison and Milwaukee. Paulina Gutierrez
is the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission.
She says that the placement of the city's 15 ballot drop boxes
at libraries and city hall was very deliberate.
the cameras have always been there. As part of the Milwaukee
Public Library and in our city Hall complex and our operations
center, we just installed the ballot drop boxes where there is
a camera. >> So they've always been under
24 hour surveillance. I think it helps to give the voters some
confidence in what we're doing, and if there is a situation
where we need to investigate, we have that evidence.
>> With Wisconsin being a key battleground state for the
presidential election, some groups have discussed plans for
monitoring or even videotaping people using ballot drop boxes.
Gutierrez says that's allowed, but also warns these would be
watchers. >> We don't mind having
observers. I think what's important to know that is if an
observer is disrupting the process, we will act swiftly and