Donald J. Trump v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, et al.

Since the 1980s, the Wisconsin Legislature has authorized absentee voting but explicitly commanded it must be “carefully regulated to prevent the potential for fraud and abuse.” Wis. Stat. § 6.84(1). During the 2020 Presidential election, however, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) and local election officials implemented unauthorized, illegal absentee voting drop boxes, compelled illegal corrections to absentee ballot witness certificates by poll workers, and encouraged widespread voter misuse of “indefinitely confined” status to avoid voter ID laws, all in disregard of the Legislature’s explicit command to “carefully regulate” the absentee voting process. After Election Day, Respondents encouraged the counting of, and did count, tens of thousands of invalid absentee ballots received in violation of the “mandatory” requirement of Wis. Stat. § 6.84(2) that absentee ballots “in contravention of the [specified statutory absentee balloting] procedures…may not be counted.” The foregoing raises the following questions: 1. Whether WEC and local election officials violated Art. II, § 1, cl. 2 of the United States Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of Equal Protection during the 2020 Presidential election by implementing unauthorized absentee voting practices in disregard of the Wisconsin Legislature’s explicit command that absentee voting must be “carefully regulated” and absentee ballots cast outside of the Legislature’s authorized procedures “may not be counted”?