Green Bay Reporter

In the battleground state of Wisconsin, five cities are setting up drop boxes for absentee ballots with a grant from a non-profit organization.

The Center for Tech and Civic Life awarded grants to Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee and Racine, a Reuters report on Aug. 20 to WTVB said. 

“From ensuring that polling places are open and following the latest public health guidelines to providing options for voters to easily and securely return absentee ballots, to making certain that the incredible people who step up to serve as poll workers are protected and well-compensated for their service, we’re proud to partner with the five largest cities in Wisconsin to deliver a smooth voting process that inspires confidence,” the center’s executive director, Tiana Epps-Johnson, said in a July statement.

As with most issues in 2020, drop boxes have become a partisan concern, particularly in battleground states.

Democrats are supporting drop boxes as an alternative for voters who don’t trust the United States Postal Service to deliver their ballots, Reuters reported. Republican officials, meanwhile are banning them in states such as Missouri.

As Reuters and other news outlets have reporter, President Trump's re-election campaign has sued states, including Pennsylvania — a battleground state — claiming that its receptacles will lead to fraud. 

According to the group Influence Watch, the Center for Tech and Civic Life “pushes for left-of-center voting policies and election administration.”

The center “has not pushed” drop boxes on Green Bay, City Councilwoman Barbara Dorff told the Green Bay Reporter. 

“They have remained very nonpartisan with us,” Dorff told the publication. “We are doing our own agenda.”

Dorff said the council’s election committee has not discussed the group’s political leanings.

“That is not even something we’re talking about on the elections committee,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve heard that terminology, that it was a left-wing organization.”

 In Wisconsin, voters have to register for absentee ballots, which requires them to show identification and fill out a form, Dorff said.

“It’s not like a mass mail-in,” she said. “We’re not doing that.”

The city previously had one drop box for absentee ballots but will expand that to have drop boxes at four fire stations, she said.