A Wisconsin judge has sided with a voter who argued that the city of Racine violated state law when it operated a van that drove to locations throughout the city and collected absentee ballots.
Racine County Circuit Court Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz ruled that the city’s use of a mobile van for absentee voting violated state law and benefited Democrats unfairly in a primary election in August 2022. The van was bought with money from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit run by Mark Zuckerberg that has been accused of allocating funds for elections in ways that benefit Democrats.
The decision came after Ken Brown, represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Racine City Clerk Tara McMenamin. Intervenors on behalf of the defendants included the Democratic National Committee, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans.
In his ruling, Gasiorkiewicz said that while state law did not expressly prohibit mobile van absentee ballot sites, there was nothing in state law to allow them either.
“Nothing in the statutory language detailing the procedures by which absentee ballots may be cast mentions mobile van absentee ballot sites or anything like them. Such an interpretation was and is contrary to law,” he said.
According to WILL, there were almost two dozen sites throughout Racine where a mobile van parked for several hours of in-person absentee voting in the two weeks before the 2022 election.
The ruling could come into play as the 2024 presidential election approaches and voting rules in Wisconsin come under scrutiny. The Wisconsin Supreme Court previously ruled that the use of ballot drop boxes in 2020 was illegal, but the decision could be reversed as liberals have taken a majority on the court.
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Gasiorkiewicz also sided with Brown’s statements that the use of the van benefited Democrats.
“The statute in question clearly and unequivocally indicates that chosen alternate absentee balance balloting sites cannot afford an advantage to any political party,” Gasiorkiewicz wrote. “The filings in this case clearly indicated that the alternate sites chosen clearly favored members of the Democratic Party or those with known Democratic Party leanings.”
WILL celebrated the decision, saying that it was a win for election integrity.
“Wisconsin voters should know that their elections are secure, and that election administration does not favor one political party over another. This decision does just that. WILL’s policy and legal expertise allow us to hold government actors accountable to the rule of law at all levels, ‘WILL Deputy Counsel Lucas Vebber said.