A far-left judge in Wisconsin, one of just a few swing states that decided the 2020 presidential election, has issued a temporary injunction that will allow some voters to receive an absentee ballot for the 2024 election via email rather than the U.S. mail service, a change that critics say will create chaos in the voting process.

The decision stems from a lawsuit filed back in April by Disability Rights Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, and four Wisconsinite voters with physical disabilities ranging from blindness to spinal muscular atrophy. The lawsuit argued that state law regarding absentee ballots discriminates against some disabled persons who cannot fill out a ballot without assistance from another person. The presence of another person who knows the nature of the votes cast compromises the secrecy and integrity of a disabled person's private vote, the lawsuit claimed.

'I just don’t think they should be prosecuting cases for people who steal from Walmart.'

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Everett Mitchell agreed. Last week, Mitchell ruled that those who have "a print disability" may receive an absentee ballot via email, a means otherwise reserved for military or overseas voters only.

Mitchell clarified that a "print disability" is such that it prevents an absentee voter from reading or filling out an absentee ballot "independently." His ruling also made this exception available to all who "self-certify" as having a print disability, perhaps opening the door to abuse or even fraud.

Though plaintiffs had hoped that such disabled absentee voters would also be able to submit their completed ballots through email, Mitchell firmly precluded that option. "This order shall not be construed to permit electronic return of a marked absentee ballot," he wrote. Thus, these voters must mail in their completed ballots like all other absentee voters in the state.

Some are cautiously cheering the decision. Disability Rights Wisconsin public policy manager Lisa Hassenstab called it "a good first step" but claimed there is still more work to be done. "The end goal is for the entire process of receiving marking and returning a ballot to be truly accessible for voters with print disabilities," she said.

However, many others, including state leaders representing both parties, are worried about the potential consequences of this ruling. In an appeal document, some GOP lawmakers suggested that Mitchell's ruling will "disrupt[] the State’s status quo election procedures mere months before the November 2024 general election."

Even those working under Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul — who recently charged several Trump associates in connection with the 2020 election — expressed misgivings. At an appeal hearing Monday, Assistant Attorney General Karla Keckhaver argued that implementing this policy now with a presidential election just months away would create confusion for voters and election clerks alike. She also noted that many of the state's 1,800 clerks do not use official government email addresses, which are generally more secure.

Finally, she claimed that equipment accommodating the disabled is available at in-person voting locations and that those entrusted with assisting disabled voters may not divulge the contents of those votes under threat of criminal penalty.

"The plaintiffs aren’t being forced to forfeit their right to vote," Keckhaver insisted. "They can vote the way they always have."

Others have noted that Judge Mitchell has been involved in far-left politics for years. Nearly a decade ago, before he ever ascended to the bench, Mitchell even argued against prosecuting shoplifters who target "big-box" stores that are well-insured.

"I just don’t think they should be prosecuting cases for people who steal from Walmart," Mitchell, then a lawyer and pastor, said at the time. "I don’t think that Target and all them other places — the big boxes that have insurance — they should be using the people that steal from there as justification to start engaging in aggressive police behavior."

More recently, Mitchell has campaigned for higher court seats by standing with the "LGBTQ" community and Planned Parenthood. In February 2023, he even listed "reproductive justice" as one of three reasons he was vying for a vacancy on the state's supreme court, a race he ultimately lost.

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