It's been more than a year since the 2020 presidential election. With a partnership between voter integrity organizations and Republican state legislatures, we have more proof than ever that while there may not have been widespread election "fraud" —according to the technical definition of the term — there were, in fact, widespread violations of election law.
This week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court proved just that. In a 4-3 ruling, the majority opinion explained how the state's use of unmanned ballot drop boxes during the 2020 elections was a violation of election law.
"Ballot drop boxes are illegal under Wisconsin statutes. An absentee ballot must be returned by mail or the voter must personally deliver it to the municipal clerk at the clerk's office or a designated alternate site," the opinion states. "The Wisconsin voters allege they have suffered an injury in fact to their right to vote. As the Wisconsin voters argue, 'voters are entitled to have the elections in which they participate administered properly under the law.'...We agree."
"If the right to vote is to have any meaning at all, elections must be conducted according to law. Throughout history, tyrants have claimed electoral victory via elections conducted in violation of governing law," the opinion continues. "The right to vote presupposes the rule of law governs elections. If elections are conducted outside of the law, the people have not conferred their consent on the government. Such elections are unlawful and their results are illegitimate."
In January, a court in Pennsylvania found similar violations of election law in the Commonwealth, casting doubt on the legitimacy of votes cast by mail.
"A court declared Friday that Pennsylvania's expansive 2-year-old mail-in voting law violates the state constitution," the Associated Press reported at the time. "Just over 2.5 million people voted under the law's expansion of mail-in voting in 2020's presidential election, most of them Democrats, out of 6.9 million total cast."
Last summer, the Georgia legislature passed the Election Integrity Act of 2021, barring ballot harvesting and limiting ballot drop box use to early voting locations and hours. The measures were implemented to bolster election integrity and diffuse potential fraud in future elections. In December, new legislation was introduced to ban the use of ballot drop boxes completely.
"An election in North Carolina was overturned because of ballot harvesting, and also in New Jersey relating to ballot harvesting schemes," Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a speech earlier this year. "This should be illegal nationwide."
"No one should be between the voter and the election official, especially partisan actors," he continued.
Last July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold a new law banning ballot harvesting in the Grand Canyon State.
"Today is a win for election integrity safeguards in Arizona and across the country," Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said after the victory. "Fair elections are the cornerstone of our republic, and they start with rational laws that protect both the right to vote and the accuracy of the results."
History and bipartisan studies show ballot harvesting and mass mail-in voting leads to fraud. We also know the use of these tactics violated the law during the 2020 presidential election. To reiterate the opinion from the Wisconsin Supreme Court this week, "If elections are conducted outside of the law, the people have not conferred their consent on the government. Such elections are unlawful and their results are illegitimate."