The press release below was originally distributed by League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and republished with permission.

Disability Rights Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, represented by Stafford Rosenbaum LLP and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, filed suit in Dane County Circuit Court, seeking to address an absentee voting procedure that unlawfully discriminates against voters with disabilities. The lawsuit seeks an order enjoining certain Wisconsin statutes that block voters with disabilities from receiving, marking, and returning their absentee ballot electronically.

Wisconsin’s Constitution provides that: “All votes shall be by secret ballot.” Wis. Const., art. III, § 3. But many voters with disabilities cannot reliably travel to a polling place and cannot personally fill out a paper absentee ballot, meaning they are routinely forced to disclose the substance of their vote to third-parties when marking their ballots.

The cure to this constitutional violation is readily available: voters with disabilities often have adaptive technology that they use every day that can be used to mark an absentee ballot in a manner that is both private and independent. Thirteen states have also expanded their electronic absentee ballot programs to allow voters with disabilities to return their voted absentee ballots by email or through an online portal.