Wisconsin
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.
In a bit of a surprise, Wisconsin Badgers starting center Jake Renfro is using a medical hardship year and entering the transfer portal for his final season of eligibility.
Renfro, a sixth-year senior in 2024, battled numerous injuries this season, limiting him to only four games after having season-ending surgery. He was a full-time starter for Wisconsin in 2024 after missing the entire 2023 season except for the team’s bowl game due to injury.
Prior to his time at Wisconsin, Renfro had played for head coach Luke Fickell at Cincinnati for three seasons. He played in seven games as a freshman in 2020, making six starts at center. He then was the full-time starter as a sophomore in 2021, earning All-AAC honors before missing the entire 2022 season due to injury.
Now, he’s set to come back to college football for a seventh year, rather than turn pro, and will look to do so at another school.
“I want to thank Coach Fickell, the entire coaching and training staff, my teammates, and the University of Wisconsin for everything over the past three seasons,” Renfro wrote. “I am grateful for the support, development, friendships, and memories I have made during my time in Madison. After much prayer and consideration, I have decided to enter the transfer portal and use a medical hardship year to continue my college football journey. I will always appreciate my time as a Badger.”
Renfro was one of the biggest supporters of Fickell publicly, being a vocal leader on the team as the starting center.
With his departure, Wisconsin could need a new starting left tackle, left guard, and center next season, depending on whether Joe Brunner heads to the NFL or returns for another season.
Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield discusses tournament win
Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield commented on the Badgers’ ‘huge’ win over North Carolina in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
MADISON — It did not take long for Alicia Andrew to text her younger sister after watching the NCAA volleyball selection show with her Wisconsin teammates in a lounge area in the south end zone of Camp Randall Stadium.
“I was like, ‘Girl!’” Andrew said. “She’s like, ‘I know! I’ll see you in Texas! And I was like, ‘I’m so excited!’”
Andrew will not see her younger sister in the Gregory Gym stands like any other family members, but rather on the court as an opposing player in the Badgers’ NCAA tournament regional semifinal match against Stanford.
Alicia Andrew is a 6-foot-3 redshirt senior middle blocker for Wisconsin. Lizzy Andrew is a 6-foot-5 sophomore middle blocker for Stanford. The sisters will play against each other for the first time with a spot in the NCAA regional finals on the line.
“Certainly when you’re having two high-level Division I starters on teams that are top five, top 10 in the country playing the same position, that’s pretty unique,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “They’re both talented and competitive. But I also know that the players aren’t going to make it about themselves or the person that’s on the other side of the net. They’re parts of teams that are trying to move on and move forward and play great volley.”
Alicia has naturally fielded questions about the sibling rivalry, but she is “not reading too much into rivalry stuff and just playing this sport.”
“It’s another game,” she said after a recent UW practice. “Yes, it’s her across the net. But it’s a business. We both want to move on to the next round.”
Both players have played key parts in their respective teams’ path to this stage.
Alicia, after transferring from Baylor, is the only UW player to appear in all 98 sets this season and one of five to appear in all 30 matches. She is second on the team with 111 blocks, barely trailing fellow middle blocker Carter Booth’s 119.
“Really wants to be good for the people around her,” Sheffield said of Alicia. “Wants to do her job. Takes pride in her job. There’s a maturity, but yet there’s a playfulness that is a really good balance for her. Love coaching her. She’s wired the right way. She really is.”
Lizzy, meanwhile, ranks seventh in the country with a .441 hitting percentage in 2025 after earning a spot on the all-ACC freshman team in 2024. She also has experience playing with the U.S. U21 national team.
“I’m so proud of how hard she worked and her journey to Stanford,” Alicia said. “She puts in so much work, and she just loves the sport of volleyball. And I have loved watching her grow. It’s been fun to see her get better and better every year. And this past season, she’s been playing lights out.”
That pride has turned Alicia into a frequent viewer of ACC volleyball, of course whenever it has not conflicted with the Badgers’ own matches.
“We try to watch as many of each other’s games as we can, and I always just love watching her play,” she said. “I’m so proud of her. She’s just worked her tail off at Stanford, so to see her excel has been so fun.”
The Andrew sisters — Alicia, Lizzy and Natalie, who is on the rowing team at the U.S. Naval Academy — competed together in high school. (They also have a younger brother, William.) Competing against each other is a new concept for them, though.
“We’re not huge trash talkers, neither one of us,” Alicia said. “So I think that she’s going to play her game. I’m going to play my game. We’re going to have our heads down. There might be some looking across and smiling because we make the exact same expressions and quirky faces and reactions.”
The sisters don’t look the same – Lizzy has blonde hair and Alicia has brown hair. But Alicia quickly sees the resemblance with those on-court mannerisms.
“If there’s a silly play or if there is like a really unexpected dump or something, she’ll turn around and make the exact same face that I will,” Alicia said. “And it’s funny watching her on TV because I’m like, ‘Wow, that looks scary familiar.’”
They have some similarities off the court, too.
“We’re just goobers,” Alicia said. “We just like to have a good time together. Obviously she’s my little sister, but we have always been a close family — like all the siblings — so I feel like we’ve done all the things together growing up in all the sports.”
The Andrew parents are perhaps the biggest winners of the NCAA tournament bracket.
“My parents were super excited,” Alicia said. “They don’t have to split the travel plan, so they can save some frequent flyer miles there and both be in Texas. … They’re always trying to coordinate all the schedules.”
The Andrew family made T-shirts for the unique sisterly matchup. (Alicia thinks she is getting one considering they asked her and Lizzy for their shirt sizes in the family group chat.) The shirts are black, too, so there is no favoritism between Wisconsin and Stanford’s variations of cardinal red.
“They have a Stanford ‘S’ and a tree on it and then a Wisconsin ‘W’ and a little Badger on it, too,” Andrew said. “They’re really excited about these shirts. They’re being non-biased; they’re repping both daughters.”
RICHMOND TOWNSHIP, Wis. (FOX 9) – A crash in western Wisconsin killed an 8-year-old boy and seriously injured a 27-year-old Wednesday morning.
Fatal crash in Richmond Township, Wisconsin
What we know:
According to St. Croix County, just before 10 a.m., deputies responded to a crash on the 1500 block of County Road A.
Authorities say that a 27-year-old woman was driving a van southbound, and lost control on an icy curve and collided with another vehicle.
The woman suffered serious injuries from the crash and was taken to the hospital to be treated, law enforcement said. The boy was critically injured, and was also taken to the hospital, where he later died.
Both were wearing seat belts during the crash.
The driver of the other vehicle was treated for minor injuries at the scene and was released.
This is the 10th traffic fatality in St. Croix County.
What we don’t know:
The current condition of the woman is unknown.
The Source: A press release from St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office.
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