MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin voters with disabilities asked a judge on Monday to let them get their absentee ballots by email for the November election.
Many people with disabilities need assistance to fill out a paper ballot. That violates their right to keep their vote a secret, disability advocacy groups and four Wisconsin voters argued in the lawsuit filed in April.
Ultimately, the lawsuit also seeks to allow voters to return their ballots electronically, though that wouldn’t happen until after November.
Attorneys for the Wisconsin Elections Commission argued in court Monday that there’s not enough time to implement electronic ballot delivery before the November election – even though military and overseas voters can already get ballots by email.
Wisconsin has one of the most decentralized election systems in the nation, with more than 1,800 local clerks administering elections. The elections commission would have to ensure that each of those clerks has the necessary training and software to send email ballots that could be read and filled out on a computer, attorneys said.
Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell said Monday that he planned to make a decision in the coming days on whether to allow email ballot delivery.
Voters like Stacy Ellingen, who was born with athetoid spastic cerebral palsy, say filling out a ballot with a computer preserves their privacy.
“I rely on a lot of caregivers for my basic needs. I don’t feel comfortable disclosing my political beliefs to these people. If my belief differs from theirs, I can’t risk having a person quit, especially given the ongoing caregiver shortage,” Ellingen said in an interview.
In recent years, numerous consequential changes have been made to voting rights and access in battleground Wisconsin, both by courts and through the state Legislature. Voters with disabilities say they’re often among the people most adversely affected.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court banned ballot drop boxes in 2022. Later that year, voters with disabilities won a lawsuit allowing them to receive assistance delivering their absentee ballots to a mailbox or clerk’s office.
Clerks in Wisconsin were previously allowed to send ballots to voters via email until 2011 when then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, signed a bill limiting that option to military and overseas voters.
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