Is Absentee Voting a Right or a Privilege?  Wisconsin Voters Take Their State to Court Over Recent Restrictions on Absentee Ballots

Brian Beihl

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for July 26, 2023

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Wisconsin’s election code states that the legislature sees voting in person a “right,” while voting by absentee as a “privilege.” Some Wisconsin voters disagree, and are taking that concept, and other absentee restrictions, to court.

A Wisconsin voter, the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, and Priorities USA argue that Wisconsin has recognized the right to vote by absentee since the Civil War, and restrictions passed in recent legislatures violate that right.

Their suit in Dane County Circuit Court says that a 2022 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that drop boxes are unconstitutional also violates those rights.  They are contesting another provision that limits the time a voter has to “cure” an absentee ballot with a problem, such as a missing signature or date, potentially disenfranchising them.  Often a problem is discovered too late for the voter to fix it by the 8 pm election day deadline. 

Wisconsin also requires that absentee ballots be witnessed, but the complaint notes that 600,000 voters in Wisconsin do not have a person in their household to be a qualified witness, and that the very requirement of a witness violates the voter’s right to a secret ballot.  

Expect more challenges to Wisconsin’s voter suppression laws and gerrymandering in the coming months as Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz is seated on August 1 and shifts the court’s balance. 

We have a link to the suit at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Wisconsin General Assembly – SUBCHAPTER IV – VOTING ABSENTEE
Capital Times – Absentee voting rules violate Wisconsin Constitution, lawsuit alleges
Democracy Docket – Wisconsin Absentee Voting Procedures Challenge

Dane County Circuit Court – PRIORITIES USA, WISCONSIN ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED AMERICANS, WILLIAM FRANKS, JR.  v.  WISCONSIN ELECTIONS COMMISSION

Groups Taking Action:
Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, Common Cause WI, ACLU WI, Wisconsin Voices, Wisconsin Disability Vote Coalition, Voces de la Frontera

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