Mayor’s removal of ballot box under investigation | News, sports, jobs

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Department of Justice confirmed Thursday that its criminal investigations unit is investigating the mayor’s removal of Wausau’s only mail-in ballot box last month.

The Marathon County district attorney had asked the Justice Department for assistance in the incident in the small town about 200 miles northwest of Milwaukee. The department’s criminal investigations unit will take the lead, said agency spokeswoman Gillian Drummond.

Mayor Doug Diny removed the city’s mailbox on Sept. 22 without consulting the clerk of courts, who has the authority to provide a mailbox under a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. They are not mandatory in the state.

Diny, who ran as a conservative and opponent of mailboxes in the nonpartisan mayor’s race, said he wanted the City Council to discuss the use of a mailbox. The council is scheduled to discuss the issue at a meeting on Tuesday.

The mayor handed the box back to the clerk, who had it set up and secured to the ground on Monday.

The mailbox was locked and there were no ballots in it when the mayor received it. City workers planned to anchor it to the ground but didn’t get a chance to do so as the mayor rolled it away while wearing a hard hat and posing for photos that he later distributed.

The mayor insists he did nothing wrong. Drop box advocates are calling for a federal investigation and say Diny violated federal law by interfering with voting rights.

More than 60 towns, villages and towns in nine counties have decided against using ballot drop boxes in November’s presidential election, according to a tally by the group All Voting is Local. In heavily Democratic cities, including Milwaukee and Madison, mailboxes are popular.

Wausau, with about 40,000 residents, was among the cities that did not use a mailbox system in the August primary election. Wausau is in Marathon County, which was won by former Republican President Donald Trump by 18 points in 2016 and 2020.