(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin mayor who moved his community’s ballot drop box will not face any criminal charges.
Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney recently announced he will not pursue charges against Wausau Mayor Doug Diny.
Toney said the lack of clarity in Wisconsin’s rules for ballot drop boxes played a role in his decision.
“The Election Commission correctly, I believe, determined that the drop box in question here did not fit the statutory definition of a ballot box,” Toney said. “And so that left us with determining whether or not there could be ballots inside it that we could look at it. And the clerk in Wausau knew or determined there were no ballots in it when it was ultimately removed.”
Diny made national headlines when he moved Wausau’s ballot drop box from the sidewalk in front of city hall into his office in September 2024.
Diny originally said he moved the box because he was “uncomfortable” with the idea of allowing people to drop off ballots in an unmanned, unmonitored box.
“This wasn’t intended to solely be a drop box for ballots,” Toney added. “It could take any correspondence related to city government. So, you could have letters to the mayor’s office, other city departments, and once it would have been unlocked, ballots [would have been] all co-mingled together.”
Toney asked other prosecutors in northeast Wisconsin to review the case along with him. They also decided against filing official charges.
Toney acknowledged that the decision will not be popular.
“There are some that wanted charges issued based on politics and others that did not want charges issued based on politics,” Toney explained. “However, the facts are the facts, and the law is the law, no matter how badly someone may wish for a result, our duty is to follow the facts, and the law, not politics or emotions. Partisan politics has no place in the justice system, and we will not in engage in lawfare.”
