Just weeks before election, voting rules remain in flux

More confusion over how to legally cast a ballot in Wisconsin. The state Supreme Court ruled last week that drop boxes, which allowed people to vote safely during the pandemic, are suddenly illegal. Somehow, to the court, your ballot is safer if you put it in a U.S. Postal Service mailbox than if you put it in a secure and monitored drop box outside City Hall. The high court also ruled that only the voter can hand deliver their ballot to their local clerk’s office, even if they served as a witness for their spouse’s ballot. The court however did not dictate whether a person can return a ballot other than their own to a mailbox. The  Wisconsin Elections Commission has now provided guidance suggesting that indeed only an individual voter can put their ballot in the mailbox. I’m not sure how that will be policed or enforced. Are we going to put up security cameras next to every mailbox? But the bigger impact is on disabled voters, those who need help getting around, even to a mailbox. Federal law stipulates that anyone can return a disabled person’s ballot for them. So does the Election Commission’s guidance trump federal law? The head of the commission suggests asking your local clerk. That means we could have different rules issued by different clerks. It seems that attempts to clarify Wisconsin’s voting rules have actually done the opposite.