Wisconsin's Elections Just Got a Lot More Secure

In a big victory for voter integrity, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court ruled that absentee ballot boxes could only be placed in election offices and no one other than the voter can return a ballot in person. But the court was silent about ballot harvesting. As it stands now, anyone can still collect multiple ballots for voters and, instead of using a drop box, put them in the mail.

But otherwise, Wisconsin’s elections just got a lot fairer and less subject to fraud.

Naturally, Democrats believe it’s the end of civilization. “It’s a slap in the face of democracy itself,”  Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler told the Associated Press.

The real “slap in the face” to democracy is the childish faith Democrats place in unsecured drop boxes in the middle of nowhere. Any effort to safeguard ballots is characterized as attacking democracy.

State law is silent on drop boxes. The court said the absence of a prohibition in state law does not mean that drop boxes are legal.

“Nothing in the statutory language detailing the procedures by which absentee ballots may be cast mentions drop boxes or anything like them,” Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote for the majority.

The court said absentee ballots can be returned only to the clerk’s office or a designated alternative site but that site cannot be an unstaffed drop box. The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission had told local election officials the boxes can be placed at multiple locations and that ballots can be returned by people other than the voter, but put that on hold pending the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The left is fond of saying there’s no evidence of any voter fraud—in absentee balloting, drop boxes, or any other ballot mechanism.

That may be true in the sense that few people are even looking for fraud beyond ballot collection and most people trust the process itself to be free of fraud.  But a simple glance at the historical record will tell you that voter fraud is a fine old all-American tradition dating back to colonial times. History also shows that the looser voter integrity is, the more opportunity there is for electoral hijinks.

Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative law firm that brought the case, said the ruling “provides substantial clarity on the legal status of absentee ballot drop boxes and ballot harvesting.” He said it also makes clear that state law, not guidance from the Elections Commission, is the final word on how elections are run.

Concerns about the safety of drop boxes expressed by the majority “is downright dangerous to our democracy” Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in dissent.

Did you get that? It’s “dangerous to our democracy” to worry about the security of drop boxes.

This is insane. There has been record turnout in many primaries this year and many red states have these voter integrity measures in place. The left is going to have to come up with better talking points to press their case that the GOP is trying to “suppress” the vote and keep poor black people from voting.