Anyone telling you POTUS lost in the WI decision needs to hold up. I’m reading the decision now and that doesn’t appear to be the case – at all.
— Tracy Beanz (@tracybeanz)
There were two cases today. He won one and lost one. The one he won is regarding the 215K indefinitely defined voters, which may flip the state in his favor once remedied. The one he lost was regarding trying to get the 221K early/absentee ballots that were not requested.
— bc_shooting (@bc_shooting)
BREAKING: Wisconsin Supreme Court says election officials were wrong; ballots may not be counted
The opinion, which was released this morning, says local elections officials were wrong to suggest that voters could claim the status of “indefinitely confined” based on COVID-19. The majority decision also held that if voters falsely claimed they were indefinitely confined “their ballots would not count.”
UPDATE: In a separate challenge, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has tossed President Trump’s case.
MADISON — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Mark Jefferson and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
The opinion, which was released this morning, says local elections officials were wrong to suggest that voters could claim the status of “indefinitely confined” based on COVID-19. The majority decision also held that if voters falsely claimed they were indefinitely confined “their ballots would not count.”
But the court noted that a determination must be make in every case before tossing a ballot President Trump has sought in a separate lawsuit, seeking to invalidate all votes cast under the special status.
Under Wisconsin law, a voter may receive a ballot by mail and bypass Wisconsin’s voter ID law, if the voter, by his own determination, concludes he “confined” based on age, physical illness, or infirmity. This fall, roughly 215,000 voters in Wisconsin said they were indefinitely confined, nearly a four-fold increase from the 2016 election.
The court said the government’s interpretation of Wisconsin’s indefinitely confined was erroneous. “A county clerk may not “declare” that any elector is indefinitely confined due to a pandemic,” the court said. The court further stated that, “…the presence of a communicable disease such as COVID-19, in and of itself, does not entitle all electors [voters] in Wisconsin to obtain an absentee ballot…”
Moreover, the court stated that lockdown orders do not meet the requirements under Wisconsin law to allow a voter to claim the status of “indefinitely confined” either.
In its final decision, the justices concluded that it’s up to each voter — not the county clerks or anyone else — to decide if and when they qualify as indefinitely confined.
After a string of defeats in court, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling comes as much needed victory for President Trump and his allies.
