Wisconsin

Wisconsin Supreme Court considers expanding use of absentee ballot drop boxes

Published

2 years ago

May 13, 2024

Wisconsin Supreme Court considers expanding use of absentee ballot drop boxes

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Monday in a case pushed by Democrats to overturn a ruling that all but eliminated the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in the swing state.

The court’s ruling will come within three months of the Aug. 13 primary and within six months of the November presidential election. A reversal could have implications on what is expected to be another razor-thin presidential race in Wisconsin.

President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes in 2020, four years after Trump narrowly took the state by a similar margin.

Since his defeat, Trump had claimed without evidence that drop boxes led to voter fraud. Democrats, election officials and some Republicans argued the boxes are secure.

At issue is whether to overturn the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s July 2022 ruling that said nothing in state law allowed for absentee drop boxes to be placed anywhere other than in election clerk offices. Conservative justices controlled the court then, but the court flipped to liberal control last year, setting the stage to possibly overturn the ruling.

Changing the ruling now “threatens to politicize this Court and cast a pall over the election” and unleash a new wave of legal challenges, attorneys for the Republican National Committee and Wisconsin Republican Party argued in court filings.

There have been no changes in the facts or the law to warrant overturning the ruling and it’s too close to the election to make changes now anyway, they contend.

What to know about the 2024 Election

Democrats argue the court misinterpreted the law in its 2022 ruling by wrongly concluding that absentee ballots can only be returned to a clerk in their office and not to a drop box they control that is located elsewhere. Clerks should be allowed “to decide for themselves how and where to accept the return of absentee ballots,” attorneys argue in court filings.

Priorities USA, a liberal voter mobilization group, and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Voters asked the court to reconsider the 2022 ruling. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which administers elections, support overturning it.

Attorneys for the groups that brought the challenge say in court filings that drop boxes became controversial only “when those determined to cast doubt on election results that did not favor their preferred candidates and causes made them a political punching bag.”

Election officials from four counties, including the two largest and most heavily Democratic in the state, filed a brief in support of overturning the ruling. They argue absentee ballot drop boxes have been used for decades without incident as a secure way for voters to return their ballots.

More than 1,600 absentee ballots arrived at clerks’ offices after Election Day in 2022, when drop boxes were not in use, and therefore were not counted, Democratic attorneys noted in their arguments. But in 2020, when drop boxes were in use and nearly three times as many people voted absentee, only 689 ballots arrived after the election.

Drop boxes were used in 39 other states during the 2022 election, according to the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.

The popularity of absentee voting exploded during the pandemic in 2020, with more than 40% of all voters in Wisconsin casting mail ballots, a record high. More than 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.

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Wisconsin

Wisconsin vs. Michigan Game Thread: Can’t let this one slip early

Published

7 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Wisconsin vs. Michigan Game Thread: Can’t let this one slip early

The Wisconsin Badgers are taking on the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines on the road on Saturday, with tip-off set for 12:00 p.m. at the Crisler Center on CBS.

Wisconsin has seen some ups and downs this season, failing to secure a Quad 1 win through 15 games, as they’ve gone 0-5 in those opportunities. The team did pick up a nice win at home over the UCLA Bruins earlier this week, using a huge start to stay on top 80-72.

That got Wisconsin to 10-5 and added their third Quad 2 win of the season, but no matchup so far will compare to what the Badgers will face against the Michigan Wolverines, who have started 14-0 this season. Michigan has dominated its competition so far. They’ve beaten three ranked teams so far, and the lowest margin of victory in those games was 30 points.

But the Wolverines did face some trouble earlier this week, narrowly beating the 9-6 Penn State Nittany Lions 74-72 on the road.

Heading into Saturday, the Badgers are seen as 19.5-point underdogs, easily their biggest spread of the season as an underdog. Can they find a way to keep this one competitive?

Join us as our game thread is officially open for Saturday’s game!

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Wisconsin

Eli McKown’s rapid reactions from Iowa wrestling victory vs. Wisconsin

Published

19 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Eli McKown’s rapid reactions from Iowa wrestling victory vs. Wisconsin

IOWA CITY — Iowa wrestling rallied to defeat Wisconsin 23-12 in a Big Ten Conference dual at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Hawkeyes finished with four consecutive wins from 157 to 184, including a pair of pivotal technical falls from Michael Caliendo and Angelo Ferrari.

In the video above, Hawk Central wrestling reporter Eli McKown offers up some instant analysis from Iowa’s victory. Up next, Jan. 16 at home against Penn State.

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Wisconsin

Wisconsin teen who killed prison guard in fistfight pleads guilty but claims mental illness

Published

1 day ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Wisconsin teen who killed prison guard in fistfight pleads guilty but claims mental illness

MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin teen who killed a prison guard during a fistfight pleaded guilty to homicide Friday but contends he doesn’t deserve prison time because he was mentally ill and not responsible for his actions.

Javarius Hurd, 17, entered a plea of guilty/not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to one count of second-degree reckless homicide in connection with Corey Proulx’s death, online court records show. He also pleaded guilty to one count of battery by a prisoner. Prosecutors dropped a second battery count in exchange for the pleas.

The next step for Hurd will be a February trial in which jurors will determine whether he should be sentenced to prison or committed to a mental institution. Jurors will be asked to determine whether Hurd was indeed suffering from a mental disease at the time of the fight and, if so, whether the mental disease impaired his ability to act within the law.

“Javarius entered into a plea agreement that partially resolves the case involving the sad and tragic death of (Proulx),” Hurd’s attorney, Aaton Nelson, said in an email to The Associated Press. “Javarius, who has had a life filled with trauma and suffering, realizes that nothing will compensate the victims for their loss and suffering. We hope that this agreement will help all those suffering with their healing.”

According to court documents, Hurd was incarcerated at the Lincoln Hills-Copper Lakes School, the state’s youth prison in far northern Wisconsin, in June 2024.

He grew upset with a female counselor whom he felt was abusing her powers, threw soap at her and punched her. Hurd ran into the courtyard and Proulx followed to stop him. Hurd punched Proulx several times and Proulx fell, hit his head on the pavement and later died. Hurd was 16 at the time but was charged in adult court.

Another inmate at the youth prison, Rian Nyblom, pleaded guilty to two counts of being a party to battery in connection with the incident and was sentenced to five years in prison this past August.

According to prosecutors, Nyblom knew that Hurd was upset with the female counselor and wanted to splash her with conditioner and punch her. About 15 minutes before the fighting began, he got extra soap and conditioner from guards and secretly gave it to Hurd. Nyblom told investigators that he didn’t see Hurd attack the female counselor but watched as Hurd punched Proulx.

Lincoln Hills-Cooper Lake is Wisconsin’s only youth prison. The facility has been plagued by allegations of staff-on-inmate abuse, including excessive use of pepper spray, restraints and strip searches.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit in 2017 demanding changes at the prison. Then-Gov. Scott Walker’s administration settled the following year by agreeing to a consent decree that prohibited the use of mechanical restraints like handcuffs and the use of pepper spray.

Proulx’s death sparked calls from Republican lawmakers and from Lincoln Hills-Copper Lakes staff for more leeway in punishing incarcerated children, but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers rejected those calls, insisting conditions at the prison have been slowly improving. A court-appointed monitor assigned to oversee the prison’s progress reported this past October that the facility was fully compliant with the consent decree’s provisions for the first time.

Legislators have been trying to find a way to close the facility for years and replace with it with smaller regional prisons. Those prisons remain under construction, however, and Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake continues to operate.

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