The Fight Over Ballots Has Already Begun in Wisconsin

Drop boxes, which had been used for years in Wisconsin until they were mostly banned after Republicans mounted legal challenges, are back. They have become the subject of bitter debate.

Karen Cannestra does not like that drop box in front of West Bend City Hall.

Ms. Cannestra, 72 and retired, prefers to vote at her polling place in Wisconsin on Election Day, the way it was always done. It goes beyond personal preference, she says. Who knows the motives of the person who’s pulling those ballots out at the end of the day? Couldn’t somebody tamper with the process?

Isn’t that exactly what happened in 2020, she asked, when, she felt, the election was stolen?

“I don’t trust it, the drop box,” Ms. Cannestra said, before walking into City Hall to pay a utility bill. “No, no, no.”

Many Republican voters still believe former President Donald J. Trump’s baseless claim that he won the presidential election in 2020. In Wisconsin, they are taking those fears over election fraud and directing them at the dozens of ballot drop boxes across the state, though there weren’t any major problems with voter fraud there in 2020.

Drop boxes, which had been used for years in Wisconsin until they were mostly banned after the claims of fraud, are back, and they have become the subject of bitter debate. City Council and county board meetings in the state have been consumed with battles over the boxes in recent days, a glimpse of what could soon be a repeat of 2020: the results of a legitimate presidential election being questioned and rejected by a wide swath of Americans.