Mayor Doug Diny of Wausau, Wis., said the City Council should have been consulted before the installation. The Wisconsin Supreme Court had said authority rested with the city clerk.
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A photo provided by Mayor Doug Diny showing him moving a ballot box in Wausau, Wis.
Doug Diny, the Republican mayor of Wausau, Wis., was working on Sunday when he saw a ballot drop box outside City Hall, where it had been placed under orders of the city clerk.
Mr. Diny thought the City Council should have been consulted — something the Wisconsin Supreme Court did not require in its July ruling granting the city clerk authority — and did not believe the box would be secure. So he walked outside, removed the box and carted it into his office.
His actions, which he documented with photos and which The Wausau Pilot & Review reported on Tuesday, is the latest example of a pattern that began around the 2020 election in response to Donald J. Trump’s baseless claims about voter fraud. In states from Michigan to Colorado, some Republican officials have scrutinized or interfered with election equipment, seeking evidence of fraud.
Mr. Diny said in an interview on Wednesday that he had a “philosophical difference of opinion” with the city clerk, Kaitlyn Bernarde, over whether it should have been up to her or the City Council to decide whether to install a drop box in Wausau, a city of about 40,000 people in central Wisconsin. The state Supreme Court ruling and subsequent guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission established that this authority rests with the clerk.
“I took steps as the senior elected official in the city to get some things corrected,” Mr. Diny said. Asked what those things were, he said, without giving details, that the box had not been installed in a way that complied with Wisconsin Elections Commission guidelines on security and monitoring.
Ms. Bernarde said in a statement on Wednesday that this was because the box was still in the process of being set up. Her office had planned to bolt it to the ground soon, before opening it for use. In the meantime, it was locked, and there was no way for anyone to put a ballot inside. (That can be seen in Mr. Diny’s photo, which shows a lock and a “kiosk closed” label on the box.)
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Source: nytimes.com
