The Wisconsin Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next week over whether or not voters in Wisconsin will be allowed to cast ballots at mobile voting stations in this year’s presidential election.

In 2022, Racine set up mobile voting sites in vans that traveled throughout the city. In early 2024, the Racine County Court ruled in favor of Republicans in a suit, saying that the practice violated a Wisconsin law that prohibits setting up early voting polling locations in areas that advantage a political party.

The state Supreme Court in turn agreed to hear the case, putting the lower court ruling on hold.

“At this stage, just months before the August primary and November general elections, there is a risk that the circuit court’s ruling will disrupt ongoing preparations for those elections by creating uncertainty about which sites may be designated as alternate absentee balloting locations,” the Racine court ruled in a four-to-three decision.

Conservatives on the state Supreme Court disagreed with the decision to put the ruling on hold, with Justice Rebecca Bradley accusing the court’s liberal majority of attempting to benefit their preferred political party.

In the lower court’s interpretation, an early voting location like the mobile locations implemented by Racine may only be set up in a select set of locations.

Specifically, the court said that voters that live in the immediate area surrounding an early voting location must cast their ballots in exactly the same way as the voters living in the area around the relevant municipal clerk’s office.

The state Supreme Court put the lower court ruling on hold, which meant that early polling locations for 2024 were selected with the same rules that have been in place since 2016 as opposed to the new interpretation made by the lower court.

However, as part of their decision to take the case, the state Supreme Court did allow the lower court’s ban on the voting van to remain in place until they were able to rule on the topic. 

In the case, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, suing on behalf of the local Republican Party, alleged that use of the van violated the law.

The national Democratic Party as well as a local organization, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, joined the state’s election commission in defending the practice.

The voting van drew additional attention because it was purchased using funds that came from a grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit organization funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The state has already seen a backlash from its work with Mr. Zuckerberg’s center, with Republicans branding the grant money as “Zuckerbucks.” In the state’s April elections, voters approved banning the use of private grant money in election administration by a 54 percent majority.