Ballot drop boxes did not appear just for pandemic

In what will likely be the only U.S. Senate debate in Wisconsin, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Republican challenger Eric Hovde slugged it out over a variety of issues including health care, immigration, foreign policy, senior care and Social Security. 

During the Oct. 18 debate, Hovde, a businessperson who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in Wisconsin in 2012, made a comment that piqued PolitiFact Wisconsin’s interest. 

"We have to create confidence in our voting system," he said. "It is causing too much tension in our country, and let me tell you it doesn’t help when our state Supreme Court brings back drop boxes when those were only used for a pandemic." 

Were drop boxes "only used for a pandemic?" Let’s take a look.

Drop boxes are receptacles in which voters can return their completed absentee ballots, rather than through the mail, at a clerk's office or at their polling place.

In 2020 guidance to clerks, the Wisconsin Elections Commission described them as a secure, locked box, staffed or unstaffed, that should be permanently cemented to the ground and made of a durable material like steel. They can cost as much as $6,000. Drop boxes are more secure than mailboxes and typically weigh more than 600 pounds. 

According to a July 2024 Wisconsin Elections Commission draft guidance memo, the use of drop boxes is not mandatory and is at the municipal clerk’s discretion. 

Milwaukee will operate 14 ballot drop boxes for the November election, almost all of them by public libraries, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. All drop boxes in Milwaukee are in well-lit areas on city government property with 24-hour security cameras nearby. The boxes are made of heavy-duty steel and permanently bolted into the ground — meaning they are designed to withstand weather elements and any tampering or stealing attempts.

RELATED: PolitiFact: Donald Trump says the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision declaring ballot drop boxes illegal "includes the 2020 Presidential Election." 

Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats supported drop boxes before the 2020 election, but use of the boxes became a partisan issue after Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden in Wisconsin by a little more than 20,600 votes in 2020.  

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled drop boxes illegal in 2022. But Wisconsin’s newly liberal-controlled Supreme Court in July 2024 restored the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in the swing state.

So, what about Hovde’s assertion that drop boxes were "only used for a pandemic"?

Drop boxes have been used for years without incident, but their popularity exploded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Then, in August 2020, as PolitiFact reported, Trump called drop boxes "a voter security disaster" and tried to cast doubt about their control.

Amber McReynolds, CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute and the former head of elections in Denver, told PolitiFact in October 2020 that ballot drop boxes have been in use for about two decades. 

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In Wisconsin, according to a Wisconsin Supreme Court brief dated April 18, municipal clerks across the state have regularly used ballot drop boxes, many since the 1980s or 1990s. 

But their use did increase dramatically during the pandemic in 2020, when 500 boxes were available to voters in 430 communities across the state, according to an Associated Press report.

Many of those boxes were removed after the initial Supreme Court decision outlawing them. It’s unclear exactly how many drop boxes will be available for use in this year’s vote, but it likely will be far fewer than in 2020.

Many conservative communities have opted out of using the boxes in 2024, according to the AP report.

Hovde said ballot drop boxes "were only used for a pandemic."

Drop boxes have been in use for decades in Wisconsin, at least since the 1980s or ’90s, with use of the boxes becoming even more popular during the pandemic and heavily used during the presidential election of 2020.

For a statement that is not accurate, our rating is False.