As reported, the mayor of Wausau, Wisconsin, Doug Diny, decided to pull a juvenile political stunt by stealing the city's ballot drop box.
He held the ballot box ransom for a full week, preventing citizens who use the drop box from voting. Then as the backlash kept building, he surrendered his hostage to the clerk who had the drop box returned to its rightful place, secured to the ground, and open for business. People were already taking advantage of it even as news crews were arriving.
Meanwhile, Diny is trying to downplay his criminal conduct. But he still can't keep his story straight. While he has been opposed to drop boxes all along, he says that now it will go before the city council, which he now claims is what he really wanted all alongA:
What Diny doesn't mention is that it doesn't matter what the city council thinks or wants, the law clearly states that it is up to the city clerk and ONLY the city clerk.
Diny is probably sweating bullets and shitting bricks by now. The city clerk made not just one, but two, reports the District Attorney's office, as she is compelled to do by state law. Diny responded by stating that the clerk was "out of her lane" by following the law. The district attorney's office has announced that the Portage County Sheriff's Office will be investigating the incident. Diny could possibly be facing felony charges for election interference and tampering with the drop box.
But Diny's troubles don't end there.
On Wednesday, October 2, a group of Wausau citizens and community activists, supported by pro-democracy groups such as Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, SEIU Wisconsin, All Voting is Local Action, and Souls to the Polls will be going to Madison and delivering a formal request to the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Wisconsin, asking them to also investigate the case of the purloined ballot drop box.
The odd thing is that all the Republicans that were crowing about Diny's election last spring, claiming it shows that they are still widely popular in the state are suddenly quiet. That must be because their mouths are full from eating crow.
