Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

From today’s Washington Post:

Four disabled people are asking a federal judge to ensure they can vote this fall after the Wisconsin Supreme Court limited how absentee ballots can be cast.

In a 4-3 ruling this month, the state’s high court ruled voters could not give their completed absentee ballots to someone else to turn in for them. That policy will make it impossible or extremely difficult for some voters to cast ballots, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in a federal court in Madison.

The lawsuit asks the federal court to allow disabled voters to give their ballots to others to return for them, arguing that the new regimen in Wisconsin violates the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The lawsuit reignites a dispute over how ballots are returned in a battleground state in the run-up to elections for governor and U.S. senator. Absentee ballots have already been sent to voters for the Aug. 9 primaries.

The state Supreme Court ruling from this month also banned the use of absentee ballot drop boxes. The lawsuit does not seek to overturn that part of the decision.

Instead it focuses on part of the ruling that found voters can turn in only their own ballots when they visit an election clerk’s office.

Read the complete story here.

By Editor