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Yes.

In July, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that absentee ballot drop boxes in the state were illegal in a lawsuit filed by the conservative group Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty on behalf of two voters against the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

“Reading the election statutes in context and as a whole, we conclude an absentee ballot delivered in person … must be delivered personally by the voter,” wrote Justice Rebecca Bradley in the opinion issued by the court’s conservative majority. 

The opinion stated the WEC is obliged to follow the state’s election laws and that, “Nothing in the statutory language detailing the procedures by which absentee ballots may be cast mentions drop boxes or anything like them.”

Ballot drop boxes proliferated during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching roughly 500 across Wisconsin in the 2020 general election.

Sources

Democracy Docket: Wisconsin drop box challenge

Wisconsin Public Radio: Majority decision written by Justice Rebecca Bradley — July 8, 2022

Wisconsin Public Radio: Wisconsin Supreme Court rules absentee ballot drop boxes are illegal in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Watch: Ballot drop boxes offer ‘a safe place’ for voting in Wisconsin’s election

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Jacob Alabab-Moser joined as Wisconsin Watch’s fact checker in September 2022, as part of the effort by The Gigafact Project in partnership with different state-level news outlets to combat misinformation in the 2022 midterm elections. Jacob has several years of experience as a fact checker and research assistant at a variety of organizations, including at The Gigafact Project. He holds a BA from Brown University and is pursuing a MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science.