Another Republican wants to take away absentee ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin

Josh Schoemann would also dismantle the Wisconsin Elections Commission and let one politician oversee voting rules.

Absentee ballot drop boxes would be taken away from voters if Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann became governor and had a Legislature controlled by fellow Republicans. The Wisconsin Elections Commission would also be abolished under his plan, with election administration put under the control of a single politician.

Schoemann outlined this slate of election changes during a recent interview, including support for two more popular ideas: processing absentee ballots the day before Election Day and giving local clerks enough resources to expand early in-person absentee voting.

“I think there needs to be more equity across the state so that smaller municipalities have that same opportunity” as larger ones, Schoemann said.

But Schoemann would also replace the Elections Commission with a single official elected by voters, making election administration in Wisconsin a political football with each election cycle. The commission was originally established by a Republican-led legislature after its predecessor, the nationally recognized Government Accountability Board, began looking into potential campaign law violations by then-Gov. Scott Walker. 

Along with banning drop boxes, Schoemann would also outlaw “central count” facilities used by larger municipalities to count ballots faster and with more oversight. Because large cities have more ballots that take longer to count, their results are often conveyed in one large number that might not be ready until late on Election Night. Republicans have made these conditions a central focus of election conspiracies, despite no evidence that central counts or drop boxes have led to election fraud.

Democratic political strategist Joe Zepecki told us Schoemann’s plan tarnishes his reputation and won’t get him any closer to winning the governor’s race in 2026.

“It’s a real disappointment because Josh Schoemann has been what Republicans used to be, which was actually conservative and a person you could work with,” Zepecki said. “Now he has to cosplay as a Republican extremist and it’s going to get him nothing.”

Zepecki is confident that US Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) will be the GOP nominee for governor and he believes Schoemann is embracing a Trump-created false narrative about drop boxes in order to help his chances of winning some future election. (Wisconsin will feature a contentious US Senate race in 2026.)

Schoemann also proposed moving the state’s nonpartisan elections to November. Currently, nonpartisan (mostly local and judicial) elections take place in the spring.