(August 31, 2022 – Green Bay, Wisconsin) Green Bay became the fourth Wisconsin city to back down in the face of voter lawsuits over the use of unmanned absentee ballot drop boxes in elections. A Brown County Circuit Court hearing was the scene of the Thomas More Society’s latest election integrity victory for Wisconsin voters. On August 31, 2022, the attorney for Green Bay told the presiding judge that the city will no longer use the illegal ballot drop boxes in elections. Green Bay’s defense was declared moot following a July 8, 2022, Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling affirming that the absentee ballot drop boxes are illegal and that the Wisconsin Election Commission’s advisory opinion to the state’s municipal clerks that they could use these boxes was legally unauthorized.
The Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit against Green Bay on May 25, 2022, representing Wisconsin voters Theresa Sipes and Donald Schneider. The case argued that the city’s use of absentee ballot drop boxes violated state election law.
The briefing on the motion to dismiss included claims by the City of Green Bay that all legal issues were rendered moot by the city’s agreement to abide by the state’s Supreme Court’s decision. That ruling prohibits the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, and specifically passed judgement against the Wisconsin Election Commission.
Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal noted that the city’s acquiescence and the court’s dismissal were expected. Similar results were delivered against the City of Kenosha in Kenosha County Circuit Court on August 23, 2022, and the City of Racine in Racine County Circuit Court on August 26, 2022.
“This is indeed a victory for the voters,” declared Kaardal. “Wisconsin’s elections have been riddled with illegal practices as a result of financial inducement by a partisan player infusing the state’s electoral process with dark money. We are pleased that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has vindicated our lawsuits by affirming the use of these unmanned absentee ballot drop boxes as illegal. However, there is still much work to be done the root out the infection that has corrupted the Wisconsin vote.”
The final hearing on the illegal drop box lawsuits brought by voters against the City of Milwaukee is scheduled to take place on September 8, 2022. Engstrand v. City of Milwaukee et al. is set to convene in Milwaukee County Circuit Court at 2:30 p.m. (Central).
A similar hearing was scheduled on September 8, 2022, for Gilligan v. City of Madison, et al., but is unnecessary because of the City of Madison’s representations to not use the absentee ballot drop boxes in future elections. The parties stipulated to dismissal of the complaint because the City of Madison agreed with plaintiffs that unmanned absentee ballot drop boxes are illegal.
About the Thomas More Society
The Thomas More Society is a national not-for-profit law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, religious liberty, and election integrity. Headquartered in Chicago and with offices across the country, Thomas More Society fosters support for these causes by providing high quality pro bono legal services from local trial courts all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. For more information, please visit thomasmoresociety.org.
The Thomas More Society officially launched its own Election Integrity Initiative in 2022 to preserve and protect Americans’ sacred right to vote against those who would use money or other illegal means such as conditional “gift” or “grant” agreements to distort, evade or compromise electoral laws and safeguards.
