A Wisconsin judge ruled on June 25 that some voters in the state can receive electronic ballots, finding in favor of residents who say a disability prevents them from reading or marking a paper ballot independently.
“Provisions prohibiting municipal clerks from distributing absentee ballots by email ... are unenforceable as applied to absent electors, as defined by Wis. Stat. [Section] 6.20, who self-certify to having a print disability,” Dane County Circuit Court Judge Everett Mitchell said in a two-page order.
He defined a print disability as a disability that prevents voters “from being able to independently read and/or mark a paper absentee ballot, including blindness or a physical disability that impairs manual dexterity.”
The Wisconsin Elections Commission, a defendant in the case, was ordered to email absentee ballots for the upcoming election to voters who say they have a print disability.
While the commission didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment, it said in a recent filing that it would be difficult to send emailed ballots to disabled voters because it would take months of testing.
“While we expect the decision to be appealed, this is an exciting day for plaintiffs and other voters with print disabilities who have been fighting for the dignity of voting like everyone else: privately and independently,” Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, said in a statement.
The order doesn’t enable the electronic return of absentee ballots, although plaintiffs say the case is ongoing and they’re still seeking an order authorizing electronic ballot return.
Under state law, only two groups of voters—those who serve in the military or live outside the country—can receive ballots via email, although other voters can request paper absentee ballots.
No voters can return absentee ballots electronically.
Four disabled voters, Disability Rights Wisconsin, and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin brought the case in April. In a request for emergency relief, they said they’re qualified voters but, due to their disabilities, “are unable to independently read, mark, and return their absentee ballots.” That means they “must vote absentee to reliably vote at all,” the filing stated.
A 2011 law that removed the ability of most voters to receive ballots electronically unconstitutionally denies disabled voters the right to vote, according to the document.
Wisconsin legislators had opposed the request, noting that voters with disabilities are already allowed to get help from a person of their choosing if they go to the polls on Election Day. Alternatively, they can request and receive paper absentee ballots, and are allowed help in filling them out.
Legislators also said electronic ballot delivery shouldn’t be expanded because physical ballots are more secure.
The Republican National Committee, in a brief in opposition, also urged the court not to grant the request, asserting that Wisconsin didn’t have to send ballots via email because existing provisions already constitute reasonable accommodations for disabled voters.
