Madison, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that officials can place ballot drop boxes around their communities in this fall’s elections, overturning its own ruling two years ago limiting their use in the presidential swing state.

The court limited the use of drop boxes in July 2022, ruling then that they could be placed only in local election clerks’ offices and no one other than the voter could return a ballot in person.

Conservatives controlled the court at that time, but Janet Protasiewicz’s election victory in April 2023 flipped the court to liberal control. Seeing an opening, Priorities USA, a progressive voter mobilization group, asked the court in February to revisit the decision.

At least 29 other states allow for absentee ballot drop boxes, according to the U.S. Vote Foundation, and expanded use in Wisconsin could have major implications in the presidential race.

Wisconsin again figures to be a crucial swing state after President Joe Biden barely won it in 2020 and Donald Trump narrowly took it in 2016. Democrats believe that making it easier to vote absentee will boost turnout for their side.

The justices announced in March they would review the ban on drop boxes but wouldn’t consider any other parts of the case. The move drew the ire of the court’s conservatives, who accused the liberals of trying to give Democrats an advantage this fall. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in April urged the court to again allow drop boxes.

The court ruled 4-3 on Friday that drop boxes can be utilized in any location.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, one of the court’s four liberal justices, wrote for the majority that placing a ballot in a drop box set up and maintained by a local election clerk is no different than giving the ballot to the clerk, regardless of the box’s location. Local clerks have great discretion in how they administer elections and that extends to using and locating drop boxes, she added.

“Our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes,” Bradley wrote. “It merely acknowledges what (state law) has always meant: that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion.”

All three conservative justices dissented. Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote that the liberals are simply trying to advance their political agenda and criticized them for ignoring the precedent set by the 2022 ruling.

“The majority in this case overrules (the 2022 decision) not because it is legally erroneous, but because the majority finds it politically inconvenient,” Bradley wrote. “The majority’s activism marks another triumph of political power over legal principle in this court.”

The popularity of absentee voting exploded during the pandemic in 2020, with more than 40% of all voters casting mail ballots, a record high. At least 500 drop boxes were set up in more than 430 communities for the election that year, including more than a dozen each in Madison and Milwaukee — the state’s two most heavily Democratic cities.

Trump and Republicans have alleged that drop boxes facilitated cheating, even though they offered no evidence. Democrats, election officials and some Republicans argued the boxes are secure and an Associated Press survey of state election officials across the U.S. revealed no cases of fraud, vandalism or theft that could have affected the results in 2020.

Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature intervened in the case, arguing that the justices should leave the 2022 ruling alone. Their attorney, Misha Tseytlin, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.

Matt Fisher, a spokesperson for the state Republican Party, called the decision a “setback.”

“This latest attempt by leftist justices to placate their far-left backers will not go unanswered by voters,” he said in a statement.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, who administers elections in the state’s most Democratic county, called drop boxes a “common sense tool.” He said they make the election process more convenient and easier for rural and disabled voters and help reduce that number of ballots that arrive after election day too late to be counted.

“Having drop boxes in place for the 2024 elections in August and November will encourage civic participation in our democracy,” McDonell said in a statement.

President Joe Biden heads to 2024 battleground Wisconsin on Friday for a closely-watched campaign rally and a critical interview with ABC News that could prove pivotal to his candidacy and presidency.

Biden is under growing pressure from some Democrats to publicly prove his mental and physical fitness — by answering questions and making unscripted remarks — and he’ll get a high-stakes chance to do so when ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos speaks with him in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday.

The first excerpts will air on “World News Tonight” and then the interview will be broadcast in its entirety in a prime-time ABC network special on Friday evening at 8 p.m. ET.

Watch: ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos’ exclusive first post-debate TV interview with President Joe Biden airs in its entirety in an ABC News prime-time special Friday, July 5, at 8 p.m. ET.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Biden said Thursday, speaking at a July Fourth barbecue for military families when someone in the crowd shouted, “Keep up the fight.”

Meeting with Democratic governors at the White House Wednesday to address their urgent concerns following his disastrous debate performance, Biden vowed to continue his presidential campaign, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

One of more than 20 Democratic governors who met behind closed doors with Biden – virtually as well as in-person — Newsom said Thursday while campaigning for Biden in Michigan, “I was really proud to be with Joe Biden last night. He started the meeting — the first words out of his mouth: “I’m all in.” And when we left that meeting, convinced … there was no one that walked out of that and didn’t say, ‘We’ve got your back, Mr. President.’ No one. Not on.”

Another Democrat who’s been speculated about as a possible replacement as the party’s nominee, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, posted, “Joe Biden is our nominee. He is in it to win it and I support him.”

At the same time, though, more than a half dozen governors in the meeting expressed concern over the president’s debate performance and the resulting fallout inside the party, two people familiar with the conversation told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.

According to those people, one governor told Biden flat-out that people didn’t think he was up to the task of running, and another asked him to lay out the path forward.

One person who attended the meeting described the conversation as “candid” and “blunt,” saying the president was “engaged” and “focused.”

Meanwhile, some congressional Democrats have gone public with their calls for Biden to step aside.

After Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Tuesday became the first lawmaker to publicly say Biden should leave the race, another House Democrat — Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts — said Thursday that Biden should withdraw.

“President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our founding father, George Washington’s footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump,” Moulton told WBUR.

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona publicly urged Biden to leave the race, citing the “precarious” state of the president’s campaign in an interview with The New York Times. He voiced concerns about Biden dragging down House Democrats with him in November.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state told KATU she thinks Biden’s performance last Thursday will cost him the election against former President Donald Trump.

“Biden’s going to lose to Trump. I know that’s difficult, but I think the damage has been done by that debate,” she said.

As part of his effort to reassure Democrats and the American public, Biden did an interview with a prominent Black radio host, Earl Ingram of CivicMedia, whose Wisconsin-based program is aimed at Black listeners, a critical voting bloc in a state where just a few thousand votes could help decide the election.

Biden said he had “made a mistake” at the debate in the exchange that aired Thursday.

“I had a bad night. I had a bad night. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, it was — I, I, I screwed up, I made a mistake, and but I learned from my father, when you get knocked down, you just get back up,” he said.

“Look I came back from, I — I didn’t have a good debate. That’s 90 minutes on stage. Look at what I’ve done in 3.5 years,” he added.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Cheyenne Haslett, Isabella Murray and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.

MILWAUKEE – Wisconsin’s controversial Act 10 is back in court after more than a decade.

And on Wednesday, July 3, a Dane County judge struck down parts of the bill. 

What is Act 10?

Former Gov. Scott Walker signed Act 10 in 2011. The bill eliminates collective bargaining for most public workers. It prompted months of protests at the Wisconsin State Capitol.

The law separated unions into two groups: general and public safety employees. These types of workers have greater bargaining powers, while the general employees can only negotiate raises, which are capped at inflation.

SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News

“The issue was, are people receiving equal treatment?” UW-Milwaukee Professor Emeritus Mordecai Lee said.

Republicans argue that Act 10 solved Wisconsin’s deficit problem, while Democrats say it hurts schools and public employee pay.

“It’s been a godsend to them to be able to manage their budgets,” said State Sen. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown).

Latest lawsuit

In November, unions representing public employees filed a lawsuit, saying the bill violates the right to equal protection, challenging the distinction between “public safety” and “general” employees.

“Wisconsin is a better place when all employees have the ability to negotiate and sit down and talk about the considerations that matter,” Wisconsin Education Association Council President Peggy Wirtz-Olsen said.

Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost on Wednesday denied a motion to dismiss the case.

“Teachers and support staff, we’re ecstatic and we’ve never given up,” Wirtz-Olsen said.

Political experts say decisions like this once again put Wisconsin in the national spotlight.

“Those are the people that are going to affect elections,” Lee said.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX6 News app for iOS or Android.

The ruling doesn’t go into effect right away.

“I am very confident that it’ll stand,” Knodl said. “Act 10 will stand.”

The ruling will likely go to the court of appeals next and could end up in the Supreme Court.