RACINE, WI — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday granted a stay against a Racine County Circuit Court decision that limited absentee voting sites but agreed that Racine’s mobile voting unit remains prohibited for now.
During the 2020 election, the City of Racine used a mobile voting van paid for by a grant from Facebook where citizens could cast their absentee ballots instead of visiting a site like the city clerk’s office.
The complaint against the mobile voting van was filed by Racine resident Ken Brown with the Wisconsin Elections Commission via the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, saying the van wasn’t used in a nonpartisan fashion because it visited more Democratic areas of the city.
Justices were split in their decision, with conservatives Rebecca Bradley and Brian Hagedorn dissenting. Bradley accusing the rest of the court of making decisions that benefit one political party over the other.
Specifically, she pointed to the Court’s majority decision as questioning Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz’s reasoning more so than his decision about multiple early voting locations.
“In its ongoing effort to resolve cases in a manner benefitting its preferred political party, the majority enters a bewildering order heretofore unheard of in the legal realm,” she wrote. “While the majority (correctly) denies the motion to stay the circuit court’s order, the majority ‘stays’ a portion of the circuit court’s legal analysis. This is not a ‘thing’ under the law.”
Multiple absentee voting sites upheld
In short, the majority of justices stayed the portion of Gaskiorkiewicz’s decision because it smacked of limiting where municipal clerks can designate an early voting site.
Specifically, the Court wrote that his ruling means municipalities can only set up voting sites in wards where voting patterns match the ward where the clerk’s office is located.
In a statement sent to media, the City of Racine had this to say:
The City of Racine will continue to defend residents’ constitutional right to vote. As expected, the court maintained Racine residents’ access to early voting through absentee ballot sites. We will continue to advocate for and defend the use of our mobile election unit. The court case has yet to be decided. The court’s order this week allows our early voting locations to continue as they have previously.
Racine City Clerk Tara McMenamin
Upcoming elections include the Aug. 13 primary and the Nov. 5 general election.
