The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to allow ballot drop boxes impacts the city of Manitowoc.
City Clerk Mackenzie Reed explained to Seehafer News that there’s a nightly deposit slot located on the southwest side of the building where residents can drop off items for the city.
Previously, the city wouldn’t have been able to accept absentee ballots, but:
“With this ruling, folks can again drop their absentee ballots in that drop slot 24/7,” she stated.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission came out with some information regarding the drop boxes last week after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to reverse another ruling that banned the drop boxes in the state.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission came out with some guidelines to ensure that the drop boxes are secure yet easily accessible.
Reed says the drop slot at city hall is already secure since the ballots would fall into a secure locked room in city hall.
She also says there is a lot of work that’s done to make sure the ballots that are dropped are valid.
“Any absentee ballot that gets returned to our office first gets checked over for certification completion,” she explained. “So that the voter signed the certificate envelope, that they have their witness completion on there and then it gets recorded back into the Wisconsin Voter database system.”
Reed also says there can only be one ballot per absentee application.
Election drop boxes have come into question after claims of the 2020 election being stolen.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin has come out against the reinstatement, calling it “the wrong decision.”
The upcoming primary election takes place on Tuesday, August 13th. The General Election takes place on Tuesday, November 5th.
