The Republican National Committee and allied organizations are looking to block the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin.
The brief, filed by the RNC, the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and RITE PAC, urges the court not to reverse an earlier decision barring absentee ballot drop boxes in the Badger State.
In an earlier case adjudicated in 2022, Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, the court decided ballot drop boxes are illegal.
To submit an absentee ballot, the court decided, voters must return their absentee ballots by mail or personally deliver them to the municipal clerk.
“Overruling Teigen threatens to politicize this court and cast a pall over the election,” the amicus brief said.
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“And far from settling the matter today, overruling Teigen would unleash a wave of new challenges and injunctions on the eve of the election.”
The amicus brief is part of an ongoing legal blitz brought forth by the RNC.
In a statement, Mr. Whatley said the court should not undermine the rule of law by siding with Democrats looking to overturn a case decided just two years ago.
“Wisconsinites deserve a fair and secure election, not a rushed effort to throw out precedent and implement a system susceptible to dishonesty and fraud,” Mr. Whatley said.
Priorities USA, a liberal 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, filed the suit in July 2023.
Another nonprofit organization, Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans Inc., joined it on the Teigen challenge.
The Wisconsin chapter is part of the national organization Alliance for Retired Americans.
On its website the alliance shares materials promoting President Joe Biden’s policies regarding issues important to older Americans.
“Previous campaign cycles have put a much-needed spotlight on the blatant attempts to use restricted access to absentee voting as a means of voter suppression,” Aneesa McMillan, deputy executive director of Priorities USA, said in a release.
“As a result of this, vulnerable communities, including people of color, face extraordinary barriers to casting their ballots.”
Priorities USA and the Alliance for Retired Americans did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
The RNC was joined by RITE PAC, a group associated with the 501(c)(4) nonprofit Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections.
According to its website, the group supports litigation to “stop a well-funded network of activists from using the courts to undermine elections and democracy.”
The group’s board of directors includes former Attorney General Bill Barr.
It is led by its president, Derek Lyons, who also worked in the Trump administration as the White House Staff Secretary and as a counselor to former President Donald Trump.
Representatives of RITE and the Republican Party of Wisconsin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
The challenge may be timed to capitalize on recent changes to the seven-member Wisconsin Supreme Court.
In April 2023, Janet Protasiewicz, a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, was elected to a 10-year term on the bench of the state’s high court.
Wisconsin is considered a battleground state in the 2024 general election.
In 2016, President Donald Trump won the Badger State. In 2020, President Biden carried it.
Along with assigning 10 votes in the Electoral College, Wisconsin voters will decide if longtime congresswoman Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) will continue to represent the state in Congress’s upper chamber.
Ms. Baldwin is the Secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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