WASHINGTON, DC – Today, RITE filed a brief to prevent Marc Elias-backed plaintiffs from upending Wisconsin’s absentee voting laws. The Elias-backed plaintiffs are arguing in federal court that Wisconsin’s law requiring that a witness attest that the voter is casting the ballot appropriately and without outside intimidation, violates the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.
“Wisconsin’s ballot witness requirement is perfectly lawful, but more than that, it is sensible. Bipartisan study committees have found that mail-in voting comes with substantial risks, including pressure and coercion. Wisconsin’s witness law helps mitigate that. And for those who don’t like it, Wisconsin’s in-person voting option allows all eligible voters to forego any witness requirement. Voting is extremely accessible in Wisconsin, and this lawsuit is designed to frustrate the public, not inspire trust.”
-Derek Lyons, President and CEO of RITE
As RITE argues in the brief, Wisconsin’s witness requirement only requires witnesses to attest to a voter’s compliance with the secret ballot process and not a voter’s qualification to vote, meaning the Voting Right Act does not apply. RITE also argues that plaintiffs are asking the court to misapply the Civil Rights Act, which prevents registrars from disqualifying registrants based on trivial errors but does not excuse individuals who vote incorrectly.
More from RITE’s brief:
- Mail-in balloting comes with risks. Among other things, citizens “who vote at home, at nursing homes, at the workplace, or in church are more susceptible to pressure, overt and subtle, or to intimidation.” Report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform at 46, Building Confidence in U.S. Elections (Sept. 2005).
- Wisconsin requires absentee voters to complete their ballots according to a process that, if followed, reduces opportunities for “pressure” and “intimidation.”
- Voting by mail can be convenient. It is also subject to abuse. In the aftermath of the controversial election of 2000, the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission conducted a study and released a report about weaknesses in American elections. The Carter-Baker Commission concluded that “absentee balloting is vulnerable to abuse in several ways.”
- Wisconsin adopted the Witness Requirement decades ago. There is no evidence that it ever prevented anyone, including the plaintiffs, from casting a ballot.
- When, as here, “the state allows voting in person, there is no constitutional right to vote by mail.” Common Cause Indiana v. Lawson, 977 F.3d 663, 664 (7th Cir. 2020).
- The plaintiffs’ reading of the law would upend “nearly every state law requiring that voters complete or sign or attest to a fact on their ballots.”
