Law Forward, on behalf of Disability Rights Wisconsin (DRW) and the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources (GWAAR), commends the Wisconsin Supreme Court for its decision in Wisconsin Voter Alliance v. Secord. At the heart of this case is the confidentiality of Notice of Voting Eligibility (NVE) forms, which document court findings about an individual’s voting capacity. NVE forms contain important, private information concerning elderly and disabled Wisconsinites. The anti-democracy community has fought to retrieve and weaponize this sensitive information. Today those efforts failed.

Conflicting rulings about NVE form confidentiality emerged from District II and District IV of Wisconsin’s Court of Appeals. But such conflicts generally should not occur in Wisconsin because each District is bound to follow the prior rulings of the other districts.  Today’s ruling reaffirmed that principle.

The Court ruled that District II was bound to follow an earlier ruling from District IV, which found that NVE forms were not subject to disclosure. Instead of following District IV, District II had issued a ruling which found the opposite, and thereby threatened the privacy and dignity of individuals under guardianship. Thankfully, the Court vacated District II’s ruling. Today’s decision means that that NVE forms will remain confidential under Wisconsin law.

 “This ruling is a powerful affirmation of Wisconsin’s commitment to dignity and the rule of law,” said Scott Thompson, Staff Counsel for Law Forward. “It reinforces the stability of our appellate system while simultaneously guarding the privacy of disabled and elderly voters.”