Madison officials expect the city’s drop boxes will be ready to accept ballots by Aug. 6, a week before the partisan primary.
“Maybe it’ll be a little earlier. We’re hoping it’s not later,” Dylan Brogan, city communications manager, tells Isthmus. “But that’s the plan so far.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on July 5 reversed its 2022 decision and restored the ability to vote via absentee ballot drop boxes.
Brogan says the city needs to have in place security measures and a schedule for ballot collection in order to activate the boxes. The city also needs to replace the exterior wraps installed after the Court struck down the use of unstaffed ballot drop boxes, says City Attorney Michael Haas. Brogan says the city plans to have the same 14 drop boxes available that were installed in 2020 — 13 outside city fire stations, and one in west Madison’s Elver Park.
The city is working as fast as it can, says Brogan. “It has been a quick turnaround — this is a busy time of the year,” Brogan says. “There’s more than one election to prepare for. They still have to do the mail-in absentees.”
He says the city clerk’s office will notify the public when the boxes are ready for use. The Wisconsin Elections Commission recommends returning absentee ballots as soon as possible: a ballot must be received by the city clerk’s office by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.
City officials want the boxes to be a “convenient and safe” voting method, Brogan says. In 2020, there were no fraudulent ballots left in the boxes and no reported harassment of dropbox users, he notes.
There is enduring Republican distrust of drop boxes and other forms of absentee voting, despite a 2020 general election recount showing no evidence of widespread voting fraud in Wisconsin. Though Brogan says the city of Madison has heard media reports about election “vigilantes” around Wisconsin — people surveilling a ballot drop box for potential fraud, some of whom have intimidated voters and election officials — city officials do not expect any problems related to election vigilantes in the August primary.
“These are well secured boxes that city staff are keeping a close eye on,” Brogan says. “We don’t want any problems, and we don’t suspect there will be any problems.”
Still, if anyone feels intimidated at a ballot drop box, Brogan says they should call 911 immediately.
