Wausau Mayor Removes Ballot Drop Box, Sparks Outrage

Wausau Mayor Doug Diny removes a ballot drop box from outside Wausau City Hall on Sept. 22, 2024. Photo obtained by WPR

The mayor of Wausau may have exceeded his legal authority when he removed a locked ballot drop box from outside of City Hall over the weekend.

Wausau Mayor Doug Diny carted away the drop box on Sunday, returning it inside City Hall. Diny told a reporter from WSAU that he had not been informed of the box’s placement and said he had security concerns about the box.

But a recent state Supreme Court ruling suggests that municipal clerks, not elected officials, have the legal authority to make decisions about ballot drop boxes. In July, the Wisconsin Supreme Court found that state law permitted drop boxes. The Court overturned a 2022 ruling that had banned most uses of them.

“Our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes,” Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in the majority opinion. “It merely acknowledges what (state law) has always meant: that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion.”

After the court’s ruling, the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued guidance for clerks on the use of drop boxes in this year’s elections. That guidance said “municipal clerks have broad statutory discretion to administer elections in their jurisdiction.”

Early voting has not started in Wausau, and no ballots were contained in the locked drop box. Some communities in Wisconsin have banned the use of drop boxes locally, but that came after their city councils voted on local statute, not by unilateral action of the mayor.

Neither Diny nor Wausau’s city clerk responded to requests for comment.

But a heated email exchange between Diny and Wausau City Council President Lisa Rasmussen obtained by WPR sheds light on the conflict. Rasmussen called for a public apology and the return of the drop box.

“It is not within your or the council’s authority to make decisions about those boxes or interfere with the clerk in her election work, which must remain independent and nonpartisan,” Rasmussen wrote. “It is inappropriate for you to attempt to influence the clerk’s decision about the box and equally wrong for you to take it from its posted site following her decision.”

“The outdoor unsecured drop box was relocated to a safe indoor location due to certain issues that the clerk is aware of,” Diny wrote in response.

Wausau’s city clerk works for the mayor, but is protected by statute from political interference and can only be fired for cause.

Diny was elected mayor in April. In the nominally nonpartisan race, he was the Republican-aligned candidate, and defeated Democratic-aligned incumbent Mayor Katie Rosenberg.

Shortly after his election, in a May interview with a local right-wing radio host, Diny characterized the drop box as a “hot-button issue” and a “distraction.” At that time, the city had removed the locked drop box as the state Supreme Court was deliberating on the case that would ultimately determine the practice was legal.

“I thought we’d remove it, and if the case ever gets revisited, we’ll revisit it,” Diny said in May.

At a Wausau City Council meeting on Tuesday evening, several speakers used the public comment portion of the meeting to criticize Diny’s action and call for the restoration of the drop box. On Tuesday evening, a small group also protested outside City Hall.

Wausau mayor sparks outrage by unilaterally removing ballot drop box was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.