Wisconsin Prosecutor Declines Charges for Wausau Mayor Who Removed Absentee Drop Box

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney, acting as a special prosecutor, said Wednesday he will not file criminal charges against Wausau Mayor Doug Diny for carting away an outdoor drop box intended to receive absentee ballots in September 2024. Diny, who campaigned against absentee drop boxes and had Republican backing, removed the receptacle outside City Hall before any ballots were cast, later returning it after the city clerk raised concerns; Wausau’s ethics board found in October 2024 that he violated the city’s ethics policy. Toney said Wisconsin law criminalizes breaking open a ballot box or tampering with ballots, but the box Diny moved was sealed, contained no ballots, and in his view did not legally qualify as a “ballot box” because it was a multi‑purpose receptacle for city payments and other materials. The state Department of Justice had already concluded there was no basis for criminal charges, and Toney echoed that he could not prove any offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The case became a flashpoint in the broader state and national fight over the legality and security of absentee ballot drop boxes in battleground Wisconsin, and the no‑charges decision is likely to be cited by both sides in future debates over how far elected officials can go in unilaterally altering local voting infrastructure.