Wausau mayor carts away absentee ballot drop box, says he did nothing wrong

Sep 25, 2024 3:06 PM - 941 words

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The mayor of a central Wisconsin city who ran for office on his opposition to absentee ballot drop boxes said Wednesday he did nothing wrong when he put on work gloves, donned a hard hat and used a dolly to cart away a drop box outside City Hall.

Wausau Mayor Doug Diny posed for a picture Sunday to memorialize his removal of the city's lone drop box that had been put outside City Hall around the same time late last week that absentee ballots were sent to voters. The city's election clerk, Kaitlyn Bernarde, said she has reported the issue to the Marathon County district attorney as well as the state elections commission.

“This is no different than the maintenance guy moving it out there," Diny said Wednesday. "I’m a member of staff. There's nothing nefarious going on here. I’m hoping for a good result.”

The move, which sparked a protest in the city Tuesday night and anger among drop box advocates, is the latest example in swing state Wisconsin of the fight over whether communities will allow absentee ballot drop boxes.

More than 60 towns, villages and cities in nine counties have opted out of using absentee ballot drop boxes for the presidential election in November, according to a tally by the group All Voting is Local. Drop boxes are being embraced in heavily Democratic cities including Milwaukee and Madison. Wisconsin has a total of 72 counties.

Drop boxes were widely used in 2020, fueled by a dramatic increase in absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 500 drop boxes were set up in more than 430 communities for the election that year, including more than a dozen each in Madison and Milwaukee. Drop boxes were used in 39 other states during the 2022 election, according to the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.

After former President Donald Trump lost the state in 2020, he and Republicans alleged that drop boxes facilitated cheating, even though they offered no evidence. Democrats, election officials and some Republicans argued the boxes are secure.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court, then controlled by conservatives, banned the use of drop boxes in 2022.

But in July, the now-liberal controlled court reversed that decision and said drop boxes could be used. However, the court left it up to each community to decide whether to install them.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission, in guidance sent in July to all 1,800-plus clerks who administer elections in Wisconsin, said it was up to municipal clerks to determine the location of drop boxes.

Wausau, with about 40,000 people, was among the cities that did not use an absentee drop box in the August state primary. Wausau is located in Marathon County, which Trump won by 18 points in both 2016 and 2020.

Diny ran as a conservative and was backed by the Republican Party in the nonpartisan mayor's race. He is in his first year as Wausau mayor after being elected in April.

Diny said that he and the city clerk never discussed the drop box before it was placed outside City Hall late last week. Diny said he decided Sunday to act when he realized the drop box was “not secure.”

Bernarde said Wednesday that the city planned to “secure the drop box to the ground” and unlock it, but it was removed before that could be done. The box was locked and contained no ballots, she said. Not a single absentee ballot had been returned to the city of Wausau as of Monday, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Diny said he wanted the city council to have a say in what happens with the drop box. Had the city council voted to put the drop box out, Diny said he wouldn’t have had the authority to remove it.

While Diny said he is generally opposed to drop boxes, he also said he’s not taking a position on whether it should be in place for the ballots that are in voters’ hands now and can be returned until Election Day.

“As it stands now, I don’t have a dog in the hunt,” Diny said. “I want it to be done properly and with the proper input and consent of citizens.”

It is a felony in Wisconsin to impede or prevent “the free exercise of the franchise at an election.”

Marathon County District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon did not return an email Wednesday seeking comment.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has a series of recommendations to ensure the safety of drop boxes not located inside buildings, including that they be under video surveillance, secured, in a well-lit area and a clear chain of custody is created for the retrieval of ballots. The Wausau drop box was under video surveillance but had not yet been bolted down.

Diny insisted he did nothing wrong. The city attorney, Anne Jacobson, did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday.

“If somebody would have put it in their pickup truck and drove it away, the police would be looking for them for theft of property,” Diny said. The drop box is safe inside City Hall while the issue is unresolved, he said.

Wausau resident Pamela Bannister, speaking at a city council meeting Tuesday night, called for Diny to apologize and return the drop box.

“This is the kind of action that’s designed to stir the pot,” Bannister said. “It does not tamp down the rhetoric that we’re all facing in this election cycle. It accomplishes nothing positive and amounts to, in my estimation, voting interference and intimidation.”