Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday allowing voters with “print disabilities” to cast absentee ballots by email.
Governor Mitchell’s order comes in the midst of a lawsuit filed by the Disability Rights Association of Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, and four voters with disabilities, which allege that the current absentee voting system discriminates against voters with disabilities, such as blindness, and violates their right to a secret ballot because current rules prevent them from voting without assistance.
Governor Mitchell issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, ordering the Wisconsin State Election Commission to “promote the availability of accessible electronically delivered (i.e., via email) absentee ballots for the November 2024 general election for absentee voters who self-report a print disability and have requested an absentee ballot to be delivered electronically to their city clerk in lieu of being mailed.” Emailed ballots must be able to be read and completed electronically using assistive technology, such as a screen reader.
The groups that filed the lawsuit are asking to be able to return ballots electronically, but completed absentee ballots must be printed and mailed to the voter’s city clerk. Mitchell wrote that the order “should not be interpreted as permitting the return of completed absentee ballots electronically.”
At a hearing on Monday, lawyers for the state Department of Justice argued against the requirement for email voting, arguing that the process would create confusion and security risks to the absentee voting system just months before this year’s presidential election.
Assistant Attorney General Carla Keckhaver said at the hearing that the ruling could cause confusion for the more than 1,800 local election clerks helping to administer this year’s elections, adding that some of them don’t use official government email, which doesn’t have the added security of a .gov address, and that there isn’t enough time before November to train clerks on the changes, including how to verify whether a voter has a disability.
Keckhaver also noted that caregivers for voters with disabilities could face criminal penalties if they divulge a voter’s vote, and that assistive technology is available for voting in person at polling places.
“The plaintiffs will not be stripped of their right to vote,” she said. “They will still be able to vote as they always have.”
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